Professor Daphne Bavelier’s research on gaming and its effects on the brain and vision has been covered here several times before, but this is the first time we’ve seen it discussed in a TED talk.
In the talk, Bavelier, of the University of Geneva’s Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, presents her findings on how gaming can be good for you, despite how it is often represented as a force of unmentionable evil in the media. She goes on to combat various misconceptions, including that gaming is bad for your eyes and attention span, by throwing tests up on screen and using audience participation.
The focus is on action games, which I’m guessing are easier to test the benefits of. At some stage, it would be interesting to see what effect, say, strategy games have on the mind, as well as more classic genres like 2D platformers. The relationship between mushroom consumption and height, perhaps?
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