Can playing Call Of Duty make you a better driver? Shoot 'em ups actually IMPROVE the 'visual attention' circuits in your brain

Tests with 25 non-gamers

'Significant' effects on brain waves from just one or two hours of playing

3D shoot 'em ups train 'visual attention' circuits crucial to driving

Puzzle games have NO effect



Many parents worry that videogames might 'rot' children's brains - but it seems that playing violent shoot 'em ups such as Call of Duty actually TRAINS the brain.



A new study revealed how playing first-person shooter games for even just a short time could significantly improve brain waves that enhance visual attention, vital to tasks like driving.

Angry Birds fans should worry, though - the research found that puzzle games had NO effect, and only the violent 'run-and-gun' shoot 'em ups helped train the brain circuits to work better.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: A new study revealed how playing first-person shooter games for even just a short time could significantly improve brain waves that enhance visual attention, vital to tasks like driving

Computer game, 'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3': University of Toronto scientists tested 25 people who had not previously played video games, with each playing for a total of ten hours in one to two hour sessions

Previous research has shown differences in brain activity between action video game players and non-players, but these could have been attributed to pre-exisiting differences in the brains of those who play games and those who do not.

But now new evidence has attributed these differences directly to playing video games.

University of Toronto scientists tested 25 people who had not previously played video games, with each playing for a total of ten hours in one to two hour sessions.

The participants were split into two groups, with sixteen playing a first-person shooter games, and a control group of nine people playing a 3D puzzle game.

Their brain waves were recorded before and after playing the games, as they tried to detect a target object among other distractions over a wide field as part of a visual attention task.

Results showed those who played the shooter game, and showed the greatest improvement on the visual attention task, had significant changes in their brain waves.

The remaining participants, including those who had played the puzzle game, showed no changes in their brain activity.

Should have played Call of Duty first: A new study revealed how playing first-person shooter games for even just a short time could significantly improve brain waves that enhance visual attention, vital to tasks like driving





Sijing Wu, a PhD student at the University of Toronto, said: ‘After playing the shooter game, the changes in electrical activity were consistent with brain processes that enhance visual attention and suppress distracting information.’

Professor Ian Spence, of the University of Toronto, said: ‘Studies in different labs, including here at the University of Toronto, have shown that action video games can improve selective visual attention, such as the ability to quickly detect and identify a target in a cluttered background.

‘But nobody has previously demonstrated that there are differences in brain activity which are a direct result of playing the video game.

‘Superior visual attention is crucial in many important everyday activities. It's necessary for things such as driving a car, monitoring changes on a computer display, or even avoiding tripping while walking through a room with children's toys scattered on the floor.’

The study, funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, will be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.



