Action games boost contrast sensitivity

Adults who play a lot of action video games are improving their vision by enhancing their contrast sensitivity according to a new report published in Nature Neuroscience.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Rochester in New York, the study observed a total of 22 students playing 50 hours of the action game Call of Duty 2 over a nine-week period or a control game, The Sims 2.

Both games were chosen as being visually complex and engaging, but the control game differed by having a slower pace and not requiring precise aiming actions.

The researchers saw significant improvements in the ability to notice subtle differences in shades of grey in 43 per cent of the group that played the action game. This finding may help people who have trouble with night driving. It was also found that practised action gamers became 58 per cent better at perceiving fine differences in contrast.