Playing Doom/Quake/Counter-Strike helped sharpen my eyesight

[dutchmasterflex]

I like to think this is why I do not have glasses and everyone else in my family does. (Two of my older sisters are actually legally blind without glasses.)

Video game addicts, rejoice: US researchers have found that playing action-packed computer games can be good for your eyes. A study by scientists at the University of Rochester shows that people who play action video games for a few hours each day over the course of a month can improve their performance in eye examinations by about 20%. "Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information," says Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences. "These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," Bavelier adds. "That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life." Bavelier and graduate student Shawn Green tested college students who had played very few, if any, video games in the preceding year. "That alone was pretty tough," says Green. "Nearly everybody on a campus plays video games." Crowded out Test subjects were given an eye test similar to one used at regular eye clinics. They were asked to identify the position of a "T" within a crowd of other symbols – a so-called "crowding test". Participants were then divided into two groups. One played the "shoot-em-up" action game Unreal Tournament for an hour a day while the other played the less visually complex computer game Tetris for the same amount of time. After 30 hours of gaming, both groups had their vision tested again. Those who played Tetris saw no improvement in their test score. However, the group that played Unreal Tournament scored 20% better in the eye test on average. The researchers believe the spatial resolution of these players' vision had improved as a result of playing the fast and furious computer game. This enabled them to pick out figures on an eye chart more clearly, despite other symbols crowding in. The researchers say their findings could help patients with certain visual defects such as amblyopia, or "lazy eye". Such people might perhaps benefit from using specially designed training software. Journal reference: Psychological Science (in press)

http://www.newscientisttech.com/arti...-eyesight.html

[ldin]

lies, i have been gaming since quake 2 days. i will admit i can hear very good, but at night time i need my glasses for driving, i can do without them. but then i end up hitting a huge deer and causing 3500+ damage to the audi.....but yeah, the glasses are only +1.25, its not much from my understanding..

[dutchmasterflex]

But were you good at playing Quake 2?

[ldin]

heh i suppose

[TopGearNL]

Ah the good ole days 8)

I have a lazy eye, so nothing you can do about that, not even gaming..

Cool to read though

[dutchmasterflex]

^ Well they said they could develop specialized software that would help with the "lazy eye." So you still got hope