The news from the University of Rochester is all good.

Play first person shooters and actually improve your visual acuity. How cool is that? So here’s the thing, now parents will have to say things like, “Have you played a FULL hour of Halo?”

“No homework till you kill your brother 5 times, you heard me!”

“Give me 300 reps of thumb jibblies right away!!! Make those A buttons cry for mercy!”

“If one of you kids isn’t crying because you lost to your brother/sister/sibling/pet in some sort of racing/FPS game in the next ten minutes, I’m sending you to your room to practise all night!”

ok, I’ve got a million of these, so go to the comments and send in yours!

I digress.

The news from the University of Rochester is that good.

They postulate that, in addition to gains in visual processing with practise that there are additional possibilities in theraputic efforts for amblyopic patients.

Now I know what you’re thinking, amblyopic patients,, what the heck are those? Yeah, I had to look them up too.

It turns out amblyopic is simply a fancy name for lazy eye. Now I know many gamers are lazy, but this is different.

Professor Bavelier (she’s the one in the front of the picture above), suggests, that with specifically developed therapeutic software, (I’m thinking Halo 3) lazy eye’s effects can be lessened with the use of treatments such as this.

Cool!

The real improvements she says for regularly sighted humans are improved focus towards the center of vision, as well as to the periphery. This can help in everyday life for many people.

So combining earlier research with this latest news, games introduce improved hand eye coordination, and visual acuity. Tell that to your mother the next time she tells you it’s time to clean your room!

Thanks to Medgadget for the find, and the University of Rochester for the great research!