http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/09/108616/training-older-brain-3-d-video-game-enhances-cognitive-controlUCSF researchers found that older adults improved cognitive controls, including multitasking and the ability to sustain attention, by playing a specially designed videogame — and that the effects can be long lasting.
In the game, participants race a car around a winding track while a variety of road signs pop up. Drivers are instructed to keep an eye out for a specific type of sign, while ignoring all the rest, and to press a button whenever that particular sign appears. The need to switch rapidly from driving to responding to the signs – i.e. multitasking – generates interference in the brain that undermines performance. The researchers found that this interference increases dramatically across the adult lifespan.
The study found that after training, the older adults were able to perform at a higher level than untrained 20-year-olds and that the positive effects lasted for at least six months.
Scientists continue to explore the connection between videogames and the brain’s information-processing functions, such as memory, attention, decision-making and creativity.
Leave a Reply