Even if videogames rot your brain, they may still be able to improve your vision. While normally this type of improvement comes from “getting glasses or eye surgery — somehow changing the optics of the eye,” Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York states that “action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped.” Reuters reports on the study:

The two groups played 50 hours of their assigned games over the course of nine weeks. At the end of the training, the action game players showed an average of 43 percent improvement in their ability to discern close shades of gray, while the Sims players showed none. 

Bavelier found very practiced action gamers became 58 percent better at perceiving fine differences in contrast.

“When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it,” Bavelier said in a statement.

Move over, carrots!

–Yannick LeJacq

[via Reuters]