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Carrot sticks or joysticks: video games improve vision

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Playing action-based video games has been shown to improve attentional processing. A study now finds that it also induces long-lasting improvements in contrast sensitivity, a basic visual function that commonly deteriorates with age. These improvements do not happen for an equivalent group who played a non-action video game.

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Figure 1: Stimulus contrast and tests of visual function.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Gideon P Caplovitz & Sabine Kastner

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  1. Gideon P Caplovitz
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  2. Sabine Kastner
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Caplovitz, G., Kastner, S. Carrot sticks or joysticks: video games improve vision. Nat Neurosci 12, 527–528 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0509-527

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