Video games have long been one of my pet peeves. I think they've made a generation of our kids fat, dumb, and lazy at best -- and violent and suicidal at worse. But while raising kids on video games is likely a road to ruin, there are some researchers who believe that these games could help the elderly stave off some of the degenerative effects of aging on the brain.
I'm not about to advise senior citizens to run out and buy an Xbox. However, I like to keep an open mind about these things. After all, my problems with video games stem from the fact that they turn teens into zombies. But North Carolina State psychologists Jason Allaire and Anne McLaughlin are investigating the idea that many of the brain skills used in video games, such as memory and problem solving, can help slow cognitive decline.
The video games we're talking about here are not the gory, blood-spattered kill fests that I've bashed in the past. Some games are specifically designed as workouts for the brain, such as the "Brain Age" series for the handheld Nintendo DS. This game puts players through a series of brainteasers, math problems, and fast-decision games like rock, paper, scissors.
The primary purpose of games like Brain Age, though, is entertainment (and sales). There's little scientific or clinical evidence that the games have a positive impact on the health of a player's mind. McLaughlin and Allaire have just received a $1.2 million grant to conduct a four-year study to find out more.
The researchers' plan is to get nearly 300 seniors to play the Nintendo Wii game "Boom Blox," the goal of which is to smash video targets like castles with a series of weapons, including cannons and slingshots. This game was chosen because it makes players use "real world" skills like memory, multitasking, and reason.
McLaughlin says that her research aims "to produce guidelines for producing games for older adults... Part of it is making it fun so it does not feel like work."
I'm sure that the National Science Foundation, which funded McLaughlin and Allaire's four-year study, will be happy to hear that the team is spending their grant money to do product research for Nintendo!
There's certainly merit to giving your brain a workout in order to keep it sharp. But it's hard not to be skeptical about some of the amazingly far-reaching goals and theories of some of this research. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has given $8.5 million to examine how video games can help sharpen seniors' driving skills -- and to see if they can help to ward off Alzheimer's disease.
Seems like a stretch to me.
While these studies are just starting to become popular and the results are years off, Stern says that he thinks "it's silly for someone run out, buy a game with the hope that it is going to help them age better... there is no proof that it is going to be effective."
I tend to agree. But while researchers grasp at straws for scientific proof of the benefits of video games, there's one completely unscientific upside that has come to light -- they can be a great social activity. Nintendo Wii bowling leagues have popped up in senior homes all over the country. The game controller is motion sensitive, and many seniors have come to enjoy the light exercise and camaraderie that comes with playing the game.
As a tool for smashing the loneliness that sometimes accompanies aging, it's hard not to give video games a nod of approval.
Source: Daily Dose
Posted: True Health Is True Wealth
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