Video games boost visual skills: Study

Kids, don’t say science never did anything for you. From a respected scientific journal comes this gift: Video games are good for you.

Researchers at University of Rochester have discovered that, through habitual play, action-packed video games can improve a wide range of visual skills. By learning to swiftly react to attacks in games such as Spider-Man and Grand Theft Auto, video game players (VGPs) push the limits of what their brains can process. Researchers found VGPs could monitor more objects and do so faster than non-VGPs.

This study of brain ‘‘plasticity’’ proves that video games exercise multiple aspects of attention. The research could benefit those whose jobs require maximum focus. Combat soldiers or those with brain damage, for example. (LAT-WP)