{"id":201322,"date":"2016-11-28T11:51:35","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T16:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=201322"},"modified":"2018-07-12T14:30:07","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T18:30:07","slug":"brain-training-video-games-help-low-vision-kids-see-better-201322","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/brain-training-video-games-help-low-vision-kids-see-better-201322\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain training video games help improve kids vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studies going back several years<\/a><\/strong> have shown that playing action video games (AVG) can help improve visual acuity. A new study by vision scientists at the University of Rochester and Vanderbilt University\u00a0found that children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training via kid-friendly video games. Most surprising to the scientists was the range of visual gains the children made, and that the gains were quickly acquired and stable when tested a year later.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren who have profound visual deficits often expend a disproportionate amount of effort trying to see straight ahead, and as a consequence they neglect their peripheral vision,\u201d said Duje Tadin, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences<\/a><\/strong> at Rochester. \u201cThis is problematic because visual periphery\u2014which plays a critical role in mobility and other key visual functions\u2014is often less affected by visual impairments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that action video games (AVG) can improve visual perception, so we isolated the AVG components that we thought would have the strongest effect on perception and devised a kid-friendly game that compels players to pay attention to the entire visual field, not just where their vision is most impaired,\u201d said Tadin<\/a><\/strong>, who is also a professor in the Center for Visual Science<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cAs a result, we\u2019ve seen up to 50 percent improvement in visual perception tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Successful AVG players distribute and switch their attention across a wide area, while at the same time they remain vigilant for unexpected moving targets to appear, all while ignoring irrelevant stimuli.<\/p>\n

The researchers created a training game<\/a><\/strong> with these specific task characteristics while eliminating other components of AVGs, such as the demand for speeded hand-eye coordination, and any violent or other non-child-friendly material.<\/p>\n