“I use to be anti games until I saw how they really helped my son” ~ Tanya Stilwell
Like Tanya, many parents may be reluctant to purchase video or computer games for their child due to concerns of violence or addiction. If you have a child with a communication impairment however, video games provide a way for children to play with others without having to talk. If your child has a multifaceted impairment such as apraxia or autism there is strong evidence that video games won’t just help provide a way for your child to socialize with others, but may improve motor, behavioral, social, creativity, and even academics including reading.
Study 2022 Study suggests video games boost intelligence in children
In our new study, we investigated how video games affect the minds of children, interviewing and testing more than 5,000 children aged ten to 12. And the results, published in Scientific Reports, will be surprising to some.
Children were asked how many hours a day they spent on social media, watching videos or TV, and playing video games. The answer was: a lot of hours. On average, children spent two and a half hours a day watching online videos or TV programmes, half an hour socialising online, and one hour playing video games.
In total, that’s four hours a day for the average child and six hours for the top 25% – a large portion of a child’s free time. And other reports found that this has increased dramatically over the decades. Screens were around in previous generations, but now they truly define childhood.
Is that a bad thing? Well, it’s complicated. There could be both benefits and drawbacks for the developing minds of children. And these might depend on the outcome you are looking at. For our study, we were specifically interested in the effect of screen time on intelligence – the ability to learn effectively, think rationally, understand complex ideas, and adapt to new situations.
Intelligence is an important trait in our lives and highly predictive of a child’s future income, happiness and longevity. In research, it’s often measured as performance on a wide range of cognitive tests. For our study, we created an intelligence index from five tasks: two on reading comprehension and vocabulary, one on attention and executive function (which includes working memory, flexible thinking and self-control), one assessing visual-spatial processing (such as rotating objects in your mind), and one on learning ability over multiple trials.
This is not the first time someone has studied the effect of screens on intelligence, but research, so far, has produced mixed results. So, what’s special this time? The novelty of our study is that we took genes and socioeconomic backgrounds into account. Only a few studies so far have considered socioeconomic status (household income, parental education and neighbourhood quality), and no study had accounted for genetic effects.
Genes matter because intelligence is highly heritable. If unaccounted for, these factors could mask the true effect of screen time on children’s intelligence. For example, children born with certain genes might be more prone to watch TV and, independently, have learning issues. The lottery of genetics is a major confounder in any psychological process, but until recently this has been hard to account for in scientific studies due to the heavy costs of genome analysis and technological limitations.
The data we used for our study is part of a massive data collection effort in the US to better understand childhood development: the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development project. Our sample was representative of the US in terms of sex, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
The results
We found that when we first asked the child at age ten how much they played, both watching videos and socialising online were linked to below-average intelligence. Meanwhile, gaming wasn’t linked with intelligence at all. These results of screen time are mostly in line with previous research. But when we followed up at a later date, we found that gaming had a positive and meaningful effect on intelligence.
While children who played more video games at ten years were on average no more intelligent than children who didn’t game, they showed the most gains in intelligence after two years, in both boys and girls. For example, a child who was in the top 17% in terms of hours spent gaming increased their IQ about 2.5 points more than the average child over two years.
This is evidence of a beneficial, causal effect of video games on intelligence. This result fits with previous, smaller studies, where participants are randomly assigned to video-game playing or a control group. Our finding is also in line with parallel lines of studies suggesting that cognitive abilities aren’t fixed, but can be trained – including studies with cognitive training intervention apps.
What about the other two types of screen activities? Social media did not effect the change in intelligence after two years. The many hours of instagramming and messaging did not boost children’s intelligence, but it was not detrimental either. Finally, watching TV and online videos showed a positive effect in one of the analyses, but no effect when parental education was taken into account (as opposed to the broader factor of “socioeconomic status”). So this finding should be taken with a grain of salt. There is some empirical support that high-quality TV/video content, such as the programme Sesame Street, has a positive effect on children’s school performance and cognitive abilities. But those results are rare.
When thinking about the implications of these findings, it is important to keep in mind that there are many other psychological aspects that we didn’t look at, such as mental health, sleep quality and physical exercise. Our results should not be taken as a blanket recommendation for all parents to allow limitless gaming. But for those parents bothered by their children playing video games, you can now feel better knowing that it’s probably making them a tad smarter. Read more
How Pokemon Go Is Helping Kids With Autism And Asperger’s
Ian has Asperger’s syndrome, and for him, that means he struggles with social interactions and motivation to go outside. Barnhill often had difficulty asking and persuading Ian to leave his comfortable loft area to explore outside. He’d even rejected “Pokemon Go” at first.
But Barnhill says that since her son started flicking away and catching Pokemon, Ian has taken the initiative to go outside more and interact with other children, as well as his community.
Lenore Koppelman is the mother of 6-year-old Ralphie, who has autism and hyperlexia, which is associated with verbal language difficulties. She has also found “Pokemon Go” useful in helping her son socialize with other kids.
“As a result, he is finally finding himself in the middle of groups of kids he doesn’t even know, being welcome to play with them.”
Though no quantifiable research has been done on the effects of “Pokemon Go,” Dr. James McPartland, director of Yale’s Developmental Disabilities Clinic in the Child Study Center, says the game is appealing among kids with autism or Asperger’s because of its consistency and structure.
“He seems happier. He’s laughing more. He seems more confident,” Koppelman said. “He fist-pumps and says ‘Yes!’ when he catches one and then gives people high-fives and shouts ‘I did it!’ His father and I are both proud of him and how far he has come in only a week’s time.” Source Article
Back to all news Proof-of-Concept Video Game Intervention Improves Spatial Working Memory in Children with ADHD
February 13, 2018 A video game has been shown to improve spatial working memory, attention, and inhibitory control in children with ADHD. It could mark the start of a new category of ‘digital medicine’ that selectively activates brain networks. Source
Video gamers have an advantage in learning
September 29, 2017 Gamers have an advantage in learning: Neuropsychologists let video gamers compete against non-gamers in a learning competition. During the test, the video gamers performed significantly better and showed an increased brain activity in the brain areas that are relevant for learning. Source
Video game trains kids to use peripheral vision
November 30, 2016 Children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training using kid-friendly video games, with the range of visual gains the children made quickly acquired and stable when tested a year later. Source
Playing video games linked to higher intellectual function, school competence Researchers say despite positive effects of video game play in a recent study, moderation and parental limits are still a good idea
March 8th, 2016 “Spending time playing video games may be good for children. Researchers in Europe found elementary school-aged children who played video games had nearly twice the odds of high intellectual function and high overall school competence, though they caution against over-interpreting the study.” Source Paper
Action video games improve brain function more than so-called ‘brain games’
October 1, 2015 “Modern video games have evolved into sophisticated experiences that instantiate many principles known by psychologists, neuroscientists, and educators to be fundamental to altering behavior, producing learning, and promoting brain plasticity. Video games, by their very nature, involve predominately active forms of learning (i.e., making responses and receiving immediate informative feedback), which is typically more effective than passive learning.” Source
Study: Gamers ‘shielded’ from perceptual interference, enhancing their learning abilities
June 18th, 2015 Researchers from Brown University’s Laboratory for Cognitive and Perceptual Learning have published findings in PLOS ONE suggesting people who play video games on a regular basis are not only better and faster perceptual (visual) learners than non-frequent gamers, but are more resistant to perceptual interference, which may lead to more stable, long-term learning. Read more
Virtual worlds for people with autism spectrum disorder: a case study in Second Life.
May 29, 2015 The purpose of this study is to explore the use of virtual worlds by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with a particular focus on the virtual world Second Life™
Conclusion: Anecdotally Wolf’s experiences suggest that people with ASD enjoy using a virtual world and may feel more comfortable communicating in the virtual world context than the physical world. Virtual worlds offer a venue for people with ASD to be a part of a virtual society, lowers communication barriers experienced in the physical world, and gives the participant a unique opportunity to create and maintain friendships. Virtual worlds offer an arena for people with ASD to meet their peers on equal terms, not being dependent on social cues, which in the physical world can be a barrier for communication for this group. Further research in this area is required. Implications for Rehabiliation People with autism spectrum disorder enjoy using a virtual world and may feel more comfortable communicating in the virtual world context than the physical world. Virtual worlds offer a venue for people with autism spectrum disorder to be a part of a virtual society. Virtual worlds offer an arena for people with autism spectrum disorder to meet their peers on equal terms, not being dependent on social cues, which in the physical world can be a barrier for this group. Read more
Video Gamers Have Better Connected Brains
April 28, 2015 Amongst the wider public, video gamers do not have the best reputation. They are perceived, somewhat unfairly, as socially awkward, bespectacled, pimply-faced geeks. However, new research provides them something of a “Revenge-of-the-Nerds moment”: Action video gamers (AVGs) have more gray matter and better connectivity in certain subregions of the brain. The research team, headed by principal investigator Dezhong Yao, were led to examine brain structure and function among AVGs because of a plethora of previous evidence that showed that expert AVGs had superior cognitive abilities compared to amateurs. For instance, expert AVGs possess better attention skills and eye-hand coordination. Futhermore, it was already known that expert AVGs had more gray matter in various brain regions. Read more
Could story-based video games help people with autism?
April 10, 2015 New research into nonviolent video games suggests that games promoting storytelling over action may have prosocial benefits for people with autism….The study shows that the players of the story-based game were more immersed than the players of “Against the Wall.” The feedback from the “Gone Home” players also suggested that being immersed in the game’s story supported the players in “perceiving opportunities for meaningful choices and relationships.” Interestingly, the narrative elements of the story-based game were also found to improve, in certain situations, the players’ “theory of mind” – their ability to accurately assess the mental states of others. “Although the effects regarding theory of mind were relatively small, we were excited to see initial evidence for the short-term enhancement through in-game storytelling. Importantly, this effect was specific to the condition in which participants actively engaged in the games narration, while the mere exposure to the narrative video game did not affect theory of mind, in comparison to playing a neutral video game.” Read more
A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally
November 16, 2014 Playing action video games can boost learning A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally. “Prior research by our group and others has shown that action gamers excel at many tasks. In this new study, we show they excel because they are better learners,” explained Daphne Bavelier, a research professor in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. “And they become better learners,” she said, “by playing the fast-paced action games.”
According to Bavelier, who also holds a joint appointment at the University of Geneva, our brains keep predicting what will come next–whether when listening to a conversation, driving, or even preforming surgery. “In order to sharpen its prediction skills, our brains constantly build models, or ‘templates,’ of the world,” she explained. “The better the template, the better the performance. And now we know playing action video game actually fosters better templates.”
Action Players vs. Non-Action Players
In the current study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bavelier and her team first used a pattern discrimination task to compare action video game players’ visual performance with that of individuals who do not play action video games.
The action-gamers outperformed the non-action gamers. The key to the action-gamers success, the researchers found, was that their brains used a better template for the task at hand.
Video Training
Then, the team conducted another experiment to determine if habitual players of fast-paced, action-rich video games may be endowed with better templates independently of their game play, or if the action game play lead them to have better templates.
Individuals with little video game experience were recruited, and as part of the experiment, they were asked to play video games for 50 hours over the course of nine weeks. One group played action video games, e.g., Call of Duty. The second group played 50 hours of non-action video games, such as The Sims.
The trainees were tested on a pattern discrimination task before and after the video game “training.” The test showed that the action video games players improved their templates, compared to the control group who played the non-action video games. The authors then turned to neural modeling to investigate how action video games may foster better templates.
Measuring Learning
When the researchers gave action gamers a perceptual learning task, the team found that the action video game players were able to build and fine tune templates quicker than non-action game control participants. And they did so on the fly as they engaged in the task.
Being a better learner means developing the right templates faster and thus better performance. And playing action video games, the research team found boosts that process.
“When they began the perceptual learning task, action video gamers were indistinguishable from non-action gamers; they didn’t come to the task with a better template,” said Bavelier. “Instead, they developed better templates for the task, much, much faster showing an accelerated learning curve.”
The researchers also found that the action gamers’ improved performance is a lasting effect. When tested several months to a year later, the action-trained participants still outperformed the other participants, suggesting that they retained their ability to build better templates.
Bavelier’s team is currently investigating which characteristics in action video games are key to boost players’ learning. “Games other than action video games may be able to have the same effect,” she said. “They may need to be fast paced, and require the player to divide his or her attention, and make predictions at different time scales.” Source
Playing action packed video games like Call of Duty improves how quickly and efficiently you adapt to new visual and perceptual challenges, says new PNAS study. (i.e. they help you learn how to learn)
November 10, 2014, Read enough scientific studies and you might become convinced that everybody should be playing a few hours of Halo or Call of Duty each week to gain a mental edge. Over the past decade, study after study has shown that fast-paced video games bequeath a shocking range of small but measurable cognitive and perceptual benefits to gamers.
“We’ve seen improvements in tasks like efficiently tracking a large number of objects, accurately rotating an object in your mind, and perceiving slight changes on a display,” says Vikranth Bejjanki, a psychologist at Princeton University. “And the big question that sticks out at us now is ‘Why?’ What are the underlying mechanics that are allowing gamers to get better at such a broad range of tasks?”
Today, in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bejjanki and his colleagues have claimed to identify the source of these mental upgrades for the first time. “Action video games, to put it simply, seem to enhance your ability to learn how to learn,” Bejjanki says. Read more
Action video games bolster sensorimotor skills, study finds
October 17, 2014, People who play action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed seem to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly than non-gamers do, psychology researchers have found. “A new sensorimotor skill, such as learning to ride a bike or typing, often requires a new pattern of coordination between vision and motor movement. With such skills, an individual generally moves from novice performance, characterized by a low degree of coordination, to expert performance, marked by a high degree of coordination. As a result of successful sensorimotor learning, one comes to perform these tasks efficiently and perhaps even without consciously thinking about them.” Read more
Portal 2 Improves Cognitive Skills More Than Lumosity Does Study Finds
September 29, 2014 What does it mean when “entertainment” games improve players’ test scores more than brain-training programs? If entertainment games actually do a better job than games designed for neuroplasticity,” Green says, “what that suggests is that we are clearly missing something important about neuroplasticity.” “Neuroplasticity” is the idea that the brain, particularly the adult brain, is able to grow and change with training, learning, and playing.
The new study jibes with previous research that has found that many video games, designed to entertain, can have positive effects on the brain, while not all commercial products sold as improving cognition work as advertised.
“Have we actually found the active ingredients for neuroplasticity, or are these commercial games sort of better?” Green asks, rhetorically.” Read more paper The power of play: The effects of Portal 2 and Lumosity on cognitive and noncognitive skills
Fun with Physics Screenshot from the game Portal 2 Valve Corporation
Computer games give a boost to English
July 8, 2014 A New study confirms what many parents and teachers already suspected – Young people who play a lot of interactive English computer games gain an advantage in terms of their English vocabulary compared with those who do not play or only play a little Read more. Ref: Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden
Video games might help people with dyslexia improve their ability to read, a new study suggests.
Dyslexia, which affects between 5 percent and 10 percent of people, is a learning disorder that causes problems with reading and writing.
Standard methods of reading instruction might be counterproductive for people with dyslexia, according to the study, which was published Feb. 13 in the journal Current Biology.
The researchers tested people with dyslexia and discovered that they have difficulty managing competing sights and sounds.
“Imagine you are having a conversation with someone when suddenly you hear your name uttered behind you,” study author Vanessa Harrar, of the University of Oxford, in England, said in a journal news release.
“Your attention shifts from the person you are talking to — the visual — to the sound behind you,” she said. “This is an example of a cross-sensory shift of attention. We found that shifting attention from visual to auditory stimuli is particularly difficult for people who have dyslexia compared to good readers.”
Harrar and her colleagues said programs to help people with dyslexia might need to take these findings into account. In traditional approaches to reading, letters are first seen and then heard, they said.
“We think that people with dyslexia might learn associations between letters and their sounds faster if they first hear the sound and then see the corresponding letter or word,” Harrar said.
The researchers also suggested that video games might prove useful in helping people with dyslexia improve their reading and writing skills.
“We propose that training people with dyslexia to shift attention quickly from visual to auditory stimuli and back — such as with a video game, where attention is constantly shifting focus — might also improve literacy,” Harrar said.
“Action video games have been shown to improve multitasking skills and might also be beneficial in improving the speed with which people with dyslexia shift attention from one task, or sense, to another,” she said.
SOURCE: Current Biology, news release, Feb. 13, 2014
The Benefits of Playing Video Games
Published in American Psychologist, Vol 69(1), Jan 2014 A new study shows benefits of violent video games for kids’ learning: Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children’s learning, health and social skills
Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children’s learning, health and social skills, according to a review of research on the positive effects of video game play to be published by the American Psychological Association.
While one widely held view maintains playing video games is intellectually lazy, such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception, according to several studies reviewed in the article. This is particularly true for shooter video games that are often violent, the authors said. A 2013 meta-analysis found that playing shooter video games improved a player’s capacity to think about objects in three dimensions just as well as academic courses to enhance these same skills, according to the study. This enhanced thinking was not found with playing other types of video games, such as puzzles or role-playing games.
Playing video games may also help children develop problem-solving skills, the authors said. The more adolescents reported playing strategic video games, such as role-playing games, the more they improved in problem solving and school grades the following year, according to a long-term study published in 2013.
Children’s creativity was also enhanced by playing any kind of video game, but not when the children used other forms of technology, such as a computer or cellphone, other research revealed. Simple games that can be played quickly, such as Angry Birds, can improve players’ moods, promote relaxation and ward off anxiety, the study said.
Researchers: Guitar Hero Offers Health Benefits
Tanya Stilwell’s 5 Year Old Son Colton Rockin on Guitar Hero.
Leading drum research initiative The Clem Burke Drumming Project has today announced a year-long collaborative research project which will examine the benefits of using Activision Publishing, Inc’s Guitar Hero World Tour’s drum kit controller.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project – a unique collaboration between Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Dr. Marcus from the UK University of Chichester and Dr. Steve Draper from the University of Gloucestershire – is based on the pursuit of knowledge through the application of scientific principles to the various art forms of drumming. With 10 years of research behind it already, The Clem Burke Drumming Project is committed to the dissemination of information leading to increased enjoyment, health and well-being of all participants involved in drumming.
With two raised pads that represent the hi-hat and either the crash or ride cymbals, three pads which correspond to the snare and two toms and a bass-drum kick pedal, the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller simulates an authentic drum kit.
When playing on the drum kit controller in the game on higher difficultly levels, the Clem Burke Drumming Project believes Guitar Hero World Tour will provide an opportunity to acquire the specific motor skills needed for drumming. The Clem Burke Drumming Project will investigate the transfer of skills and the physiological demands of game play compared to live drumming.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project recently launched its first wave of findings, revealing that gigging professional drummers had a heart rate profile similar to professional football players and expended a significant amount of energy (400-600 kcal per performance). Physiological tests included the measurement of heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate in rehearsal tests and monitoring heart rate and blood lactate during live stage performances.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project team will conduct a series of physiological and neurological tests using the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit controller, which will be permanently housed in the University of Gloucestershire’s newly-built dedicated drumming laboratory and at the University of Chichester.
One area of research will be to examine the neurological changes in Guitar Hero World Tour drummers, to examine how the brain’s grey and white matters evolve when playing. The Clem Burke Drumming Project will also investigate the health benefits of playing Guitar Hero World Tour, and through collaboration with Prof. Steve and colleagues at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences (Kings College, London), also examine how using drums and the drum controller may help individuals with existing medical conditions (e.g. dyspraxia, stroke patients etc.).
” We’ve been extremely impressed by the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller, ” said Dr. Marcus , Principal Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, University of Chichester.
” The Clem Burke Drumming Project is all about promoting the benefits of drumming, and we’re convinced those that learn the basics of the instrument with Guitar Hero World Tour can use those skills when progressing to an actual full drum kit. No other gaming controller comes close to simulating the experience of drumming, and we’re confident the game will breed a new generation of real-life drummers. Anecdotally, we believe Guitar Hero World Tour is a perfect introduction to the instrument – and we can’t wait to examine this scientifically and unveil our findings throughout 2009. ” source
Dr. Steve Draper said: ” This is the first facility of its kind in the world and we are extremely excited about the potential here. It is a unique collaboration between science and arts. “
Guitar Hero World Tour is now available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and the PlayStation 2. The game is rated ” T ” for Teen by the ESRB.
Video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. Iowa State researchers examine media impact in multiple countries
Dec 11, 2013 A cross-cultural study published in Psychological Science, led by Iowa State University researchers, shows prosocial media and video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. The study, a first-of-its-kind, tested levels of empathy and helpfulness of thousands of children and adolescents in seven countries
A cross-cultural study, led by Iowa State University researchers, shows prosocial media and video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. The study, a first-of-its-kind, tested levels of empathy and helpfulness of thousands of children and adolescents in seven countries.
Researchers surveyed adolescents and young adults in Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania and the United States for the study. (source)
Video Games Can Help Boost Social, Memory & Cognitive Skills
A new review on the positive effects of playing video games finds that the interaction may boost children’s learning, health and social skills.
The American Psychological Association (APA) study comes out as debate continues among psychologists and other health professionals regarding the effects of violent media on youth.
An APA task force is conducting a comprehensive review of research on violence in video games and interactive media and will release its findings in 2014.
“Important research has already been conducted for decades on the negative effects of gaming, including addiction, depression and aggression, and we are certainly not suggesting that this should be ignored,” said lead author Isabela Granic, Ph.D.
“However, to understand the impact of video games on children’s and adolescents’ development, a more balanced perspective is needed.”
The article will be published in the journal American Psychologist.
A common viewpoint is that playing video games is intellectually lazy. New research however, suggests such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception.
This is particularly true for shooter video games that are often violent, the authors said.
A 2013 review of published studies found that playing shooter video games improved a player’s capacity to think about objects in three dimensions, just as well as academic courses to enhance these same skills, according to the study.
“This has critical implications for education and career development, as previous research has established the power of spatial skills for achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Granic said.
This enhanced thinking was not found with playing other types of video games, such as puzzles or role-playing games.
Playing video games may also help children develop problem-solving skills, the authors said. source
Video games can boost brain volume
There has been a lot of recent research to suggest that video games improve brain performance – and now a recent study has shown that just 30 minutes of gameplay per day for two months can actually increase the volume of gray matter in the areas of the brain that control spatial awareness, memory, and strategic thinking.
The study was led by Simone Kühn from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and was published in Molecular Psychiatry. Kühn’s research interests lie in the structure and function of the brain as well as exploring its plasticity.
Video game training could strengthen cognitive and motor skills; counteract risk factors for mental disease
Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game
Published in Psychiatry (2014) Abstract: Video gaming is a highly pervasive activity, providing a multitude of complex cognitive and motor demands. Gaming can be seen as an intense training of several skills. Associated cerebral structural plasticity induced has not been investigated so far. Comparing a control with a video gaming training group that was trained for 2 months for at least 30 min per day with a platformer game, we found significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum in the training group. The HC increase correlated with changes from egocentric to allocentric navigation strategy. GM increases in HC and DLPFC correlated with participants’ desire for video gaming, evidence suggesting a predictive role of desire in volume change. Video game training augments GM in brain areas crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance going along with evidence for behavioral changes of navigation strategy. The presented video game training could therefore be used to counteract known risk factors for mental disease such as smaller hippocampus and prefrontal cortex volume in, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disease.
Video Games Could Correct Lazy Eye
Tetris can help correct lazy eye: researchers
Patching has long been used to treat a lazy eye in children, although the therapy has limited success and doesn’t work at all in adults with the condition formally known as amblyopia.
Now researchers at McGill University in Montreal are testing an innovative means of improving visual function in adults with lazy eye — a puzzle video game that forces both eyes to work together to overcome the common condition.
In a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology, the researchers compared the use of the online video game Tetris with patching, a treatment in which the “good” eye is covered for a lengthy period of time. The idea is to make the weak eye do all the visual work in the hope of strengthening its acuity.
Video Game Designed to Treat Depression Worked Better Than Counseling
Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand just published promising results of a study comparing a video game they designed to help treat depression in teenage kids against traditional face-to-face counseling. Called SPARX, the game guides the players through a number of challenges that help practice handling various life situations and emotions that come with them.
The study, published in the latest issue of BMJ, has shown that the game was at least as effective as counseling in helping treat depression and anxiety in a study group of kids averaging 15 years old. [Editor’s note: In fact, it worked better, reducing symptoms of depression more than treatment as usual.] source
Video games can improve memory and focus of older adults. Some people as old as 80 begin to show neurological patterns of people in their 20s.
“Brain scientists have discovered that swerving around cars while simultaneously picking out road signs in a video game can improve the short-term memory and long-term focus of older adults. Some people as old as 80, the researchers say, begin to show neurological patterns of people in their 20s.
Cognitive scientists say the findings, to be published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, are a significant development in understanding how to strengthen older brains. That is because the improvements in brain performance did not come just within the game but were shown outside the game in other cognitive tasks.
Further supporting the findings, the researchers were able to measure and show changes in brain wave activity, suggesting that this research could help understand what neurological mechanisms should and could be tinkered with to improve memory and attention.” source
Modern violent video games don’t promote poor social behaviour
Conclusions
We failed to find evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. Research on the effects of video game play is of significant public interest. It is therefore important that speculation be rigorously tested and findings replicated. Here we fail to substantiate conjecture that playing contemporary violent video games will lead to diminished prosocial behavior.” Plus One source
Grand Theft Childhood
In 2008 there was a book written by Harvard professors called “Grand Theft Childhood”, in which they found no correlation between video games and violent behavior.
“The best way to protect our kids is to keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are rated M for Mature. Right? Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things! In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million federally funded study on the effects of video games.” source
WiiAssist -The benefits of ‘WiiHabilitation’ For Special Needs
- University of Delaware Students redesign Wii to help disabled
- Using the Wii for Vestibular Rehabilitation
- Effectiveness of virtual reality using Wii gaming technology in children with Down syndrome
- Nintendo Wii Finds Disabled Appeal – UK Children with Cerebral Palsy
- Using Nintendo Wii in Therapy Univ of Iowa
- Wii video game used in rehab therapy
- Experts say it helps relieve boredom, encourages movement (article)
- That latest Parkinson’s Treatment – Wiihab (article)
- Nintendo Wii helps patients perform physical therapy without the boredom
- Elgin classroom introduces ‘Wiihab’