I Can See Clearly Now, the Game Is On

Contrast sensitivity (CS), the ability to detect subtle differences in shading, is a core component of vision that declines with age or with illness but is necessary for object recognition, attention, and driving at night. These researchers examined whether changes in neural processing of visual information could enhance CS in young adults with normal sight.

CS was measured by how accurately subjects could recognize a low-contrast gray-scale area on a computer screen. First, 10 expert action video game players were found to have significantly greater CS at various spatial frequencies than sex- and age-matched nonaction gamers. Then, in a “training” study, 13 nongamers played 50 hours of two action video games or an equally complex and engagi…