Brain gyms can work - If they train one skill at a time

Link to information contained in article below - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24150-brain-gyms-can-work--if-they-train-one-skill-at-a-time.html#.UoUEAiTe4gN

Some video games claim to improve some of your cognitive functions, but in 2010 a study of 11,000 people showed evidence that the games improved cognitive ability only as much as surfing on the internet would. Although the study showed that the games did not help your cognitive ability that much, some scientist's held on to the idea that video games can, indeed, improve someone's cognitive abilities. One of those scientist's, Joaquin Anguera, of the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), who wondered if the reason the video games only improve cognitive abilities by a little was because they focused on multiple tasks at once.

Anguera and Adam Gazzaley, also at UCSF, and their colleagues believed that having a game that focused on training one ability at a time would work. Focusing on one task is logical since you would then be able to improve yourself in the one task greatly, instead of having multiple tasks and gaining a little improvement from each task. They created a video game called NeuroRacer to test if their hypothesis was correct. NeuroRacer is a video game in which you drive a car with a joystick and react to the signs that appear on the screen. NeuroRacer will help train players multitasking skills. They now have a game that only focuses on a simple task. Since they have a game that only has one task they can now test if their hypothesis is true.

The study, with the game NeuroRacer, involved 16 people between the ages of 60 and 85. The people in the group of 16, aged between 60 and 85. The people in this particular group of 16 were asked to play the video game three times a week for four weeks. There was another group of 15 people, also between 60 and 85, that played a simpler version of the video game that only involved driving and no signs would appear on the screen.

The results of the experiment found that the players in the group of 16, that were aged 60 to 85, showed that they were better at the game, which only made sense, and they could better concentrate and juggle several tasks at once. The group of 16 was also still showing improvements in cognitive tests six months after the experiment. The next test they could perform on the group of 16 is to test them to see if their actual driving skills have improved after playing the video game. The group of 15 people, that were aged 60 to 85, played the simpler game and they showed no improvements in their cognitive functions. The results though only came from a small group of people, so the experiment needs to be repeated with more people in order to show strong evidence of the video game being able to improve your cognitive abilities. Although the experiment did not contain lots of people the Gazzaley team is not giving up and is now developing more video games like NeuroRacer that are designed to improve other specific skills. These games that the Gazzaley team are designing will hopefully be used in more experiments in order to help prove that video games can improve your cognitive abilities.

If it is proven, with another larger experiment, that the video games can improve cognitive abilities then the video games that are created in the future could possibly help older people strengthen their cognitive abilities and help prevent things like dementia. Also it could improve your ability to drive, so then we would not have to worry about elderly people driving anymore or at least we would not worry about them as much as we do now. Proving that video games can improve cognitive abilities will also allow the games that children play to be made in a way that will help their cognitive abilities grow, instead of playing the video games that are out there today that do not help your cognitive abilities. Those are some of the possible benefits video games could have in the future, if they improve your cognitive abilities.

Link to information contained in article above - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24150-brain-gyms-can-work--if-they-train-one-skill-at-a-time.html#.UoUEAiTe4gN