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Master
Chief, Marcus Fenix, and Doomguy are here to help us once again. Playing Gears
of War, Doom, Halo and other first person shooter
video games can improve your eyesight, new research claims. You heard me right. Scientists FINALLY have something good to say
about video games. I almost fell off my
chair when I read this the first time.
Most
aspects of vision have to do with the size of one's eye and the thickness and
shape of the cornea and lens. But some
visual defects are neural in nature according to a new study on vision and
video games published in the journal Psychological
Today. First person shooter gains
strengthen the cornea over time causing improved vision.
The
study involved ten male college students who started out as non-gamers and only
played video games occasionally. They
then received over thirty hours of training on first-person shooter action
video games such as Halo. The students
showed a significant increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a
cluttered space compared to ten non-gamers given the same test, said a leading psychological
expert.
A
first-person shooter, also referred to as an FPS, is a genre of video games
which is characterized by an on-screen view that simulates the in-game
character's point of view and a focus on the use of handheld ranged weapons. FPS is also a term used by tactical response
teams as the person who shoots first.
First-person
shooter action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution,
meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects,
such as letters, she said. Sure, Gears of War or Resident Evil are actually third-person shooters, they showed
similar positive results as the true first-person shooters did.
Game-playing
actually changes the way our brains process visual information. These games push the human visual system to
the limits, and the brain adapts to it. That
learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life.
Similar
findings also suggests that playing first-person shooter action video games
could be a useful rehabilitation therapy for people with certain vision
problems, she said, such as lazy eye and the simple effects of aging, such as
Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study done by Popular Science.
So, I’m giving an up yours to you, Mario
and Luigi and another big screw you to you, John Madden. Thanks to you guys our country might have
gone blind or worse yet we would all have lazy eyes! I’ll stick with my main bro’s, Master Chief
and Marcus Fenix any day of the week regardless of health issues, and while I’m
at it, I’m canceling my eye doctor appointment.
I need him like I need a Wii.
For more information on topics such
as this try looking in the pages of Psychology
Today or Popular Science. Subscriptions to magazines like these are
available at Magsforless.com at www.magsforless.com. Magsforless.com sells a variety of magazine subscriptions
on health and science issues along with hundreds of other magazines on any
subject of your choice.
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