According to a recent study, first-person shooters like Halo, Call of Duty, and Destiny may help patients recover from traumatic brain injuries by increasing the brain’s capacity for sustained attention and information processing.
According to the main researcher Alexandra Vakili from Macquarie University in Australia, “This type of injury can have lifetime effects.”
Even though healing takes time, without assistance, the patient could never be able to work again.
Retraining cognitive functioning has economic advantages for both the individual and the community as a whole.”
Vakili and his team asked a group of 31 patients who had experienced traumatic brain injuries to play the first-person shooter Medal of Honor: Rising Sun on a console for the study’s goals.
The players received instruction on problem-solving techniques and game-related strategies while they were playing.
Additionally, they invested some time in a program that addressed the typical effects of brain damage and coping mechanisms.
In addition to improving at playing, the participants outperformed the control group in general competence.
The advantage of utilizing a games console as a way of treatment is that it’s likely to be something they’re already familiar with, The researchers point out that because young men tend to sustain these kinds of brain injuries more frequently than women (the study participants were males aged between 18 and 65 years).
Additionally, it would lessen the need for specialized equipment because, despite what consumers may think, gaming consoles like Sony and Microsoft are not as expensive as the majority of other medical equipment.
Noting that traumatic brain injuries can vary greatly in terms of their etiology and symptoms, it should be highlighted that the study’s sample size is modest. As a result, more research and supporting evidence are required to support the conclusions.
Larger randomized controlled trials in this field are now required, according to Vakili, to expand on the participants’ favorable outcomes.
Action gaming has the potential to significantly benefit this group of patients, which is quite exciting.
The benefits of playing video games for the mind have been well documented in the past; you might want to mention this the next time someone looks askance at you for spending too much time on the Xbox or PlayStation.
Previous research has linked gaming to improvements in motor skills, learning efficiency, problem-solving ability, memory, and brain connectivity.
