Play Video Games and Improve Your Vision!

Developmental Psychologist, Daphne Maurer, conducted a study to determine whether playing video games could possibly improve impaired vision.  She was originally interested in visually impaired infants and how their impairment impacts their ability to see over the course of their lifetime.  Dr. Maurer is currently conducting a longitudinal study with such infants.  These infants were born with a visual impairment.  Due to this disability, their visual systems did not receive as much input as infants with normal development.  However, once they became a certain age, they received corrective surgery and their vision significantly improved.  This caused Dr. Maurer to question the brain’s plasticity.  She became interested in neural wiring and the importance (or unimportance) of the “critical period” in visual development.

She organized a study in which she had seven adult participants that were visually impaired that played this video game along with a control group of visually impaired adults that did not play the video game.  The participants were informed about the potential risks of playing Medal of Honor (the selected first-person shooter game).  They were then tested for visual ability.  Each adult was taught how to play the game and then given the materials to go home and play the game for 10 hours a week (2 hours a day maximum).  After one month, they were brought back into the laboratory to test their vision.  All of the adults showed some improvement in their visual ability. 

Dr. Maurer found the shooting-game effective because of its heavy reliance on the visual system.  It requires the player to focus on the whole screen (central fovea and periphery) in order to stay alive, uses the combination of the visual and motor system, and it is fast-paced which causes some sort of adrenaline rush.  This whole experience affects the neurochemicals in the brain.  Some of Dr. Maurer’s theories as to why video games may be effective at increasing visual ability are that new neural connections may be forming while learning how to play and getting better at playing, some of the neural connections that were too weak to be expressed are being exposed, and the brain is just getting better at responding to all types of visual signals.  Daphne Maurer sees great hope for adults with visual impairments, and her study agrees that the adult’s brain’s sensory signals are plastic.

Like Dr. Maurer, Cognitive Psychologist, Gary Marcus, was also interested in the brain’s plasticity.  His interest focused on his passion for music.  He wondered whether or not there really is a “critical period” during which music can be learned or if it is possible for adults with no natural talent to learn to play an instrument fairly well.  He took it upon himself to embark on this scientific journey and try to learn to play the guitar at the age of 40.  In his new book, Guitar Zero, Marcus addresses some of the same issues as Daphne Maurer: critical periods, neural wiring, brain’s plasticity, adult neural development, etc.  Through his own experience, he debunks the myth that “critical periods” are set in stone.  Like Dr. Maurer, Marcus agrees that adult brains are more flexible than previous studies have shown.  He also addresses that practice significantly improves ability just like Dr. Maurer and her video game study. 

Both researchers conducted similar ground-breaking studies that have opened doors for Neuroscientists to study the sensory brain and learning in a way that can immensely impact the future of human development. 

For more information about Daphne Maurer’s study, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/how-video-games-could-improve-our-vision.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/17/first-person-shooter-video-game-provides-therapy-for-rare-eye-disorder/

Also be sure to check out Gary Marcus’ new book: Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.