Action video games good for eyes?

Singapore: Video game addicts, rejoice: US researchers have found that playing is actually good for your eyes, and despite all those dire warnings from your parents, it won’t make you blind.A study by the University of Rochester showed that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved their vision by about 20%. “Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information,” Daphne Baveller, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, said in the study published on the university’s web site, wwwrochesteredu, on Tuesday“These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it. That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life.”Bavelier, along with a graduate student, tested a number of college students who had played very few, if any, video games in the last yearTest subjects were given an eye test similar tQ the one used at regular eye clinics and then divided into two groups — one played shoot-em-up action games for an hour a day while the control group played a less visually complex game.Their vision was tested after the study, with those who played the action game scoring better in the eye test.The researchers said their fmdings could help patients with several types of visual defects.Last week, West Virginia, which has the worst childhood obesity problem in the US, stepped up plans to use ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ to battle the bulge in its schools.The state said on Wednes- day that research suggestedthat the video game helped put a halt to weight gain. REUTERSAction videogames goodfor eyes, sayUS expertsU