There May be a new market for video games: octogenarians.
Brain scientists have discovered That swerving around cars while Simultaneously picking out road signs in a video game can improve the short-term memory and long-term focus of older adults. Some people as old as 80, the travel researchers say, begin to show neurological patterns of people in Their 20s.
Cognitive scientists say the findings, to be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, are a significant development in understanding how to streng then older brains. That’s Because the improvements in brain performance did not just come within the game but were shown outside the game in other cognitive tasks.
Further Supporting the findings, the researchers is wereable to measure and show changes in brain wave activity, suggesting thatthis research could help understand what neurological mechanisms Should and could be tinkered with to improvement with memory and attention.
The research “shows you can take older people who Are not Functioning well and make them cognitively younger through this training,” said Dr.. Earl K. Miller, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not affiliated with the research. “It’s a very big deal.”
The study highlights an emerging field in Which travel researchers are trying to better define and even expanded the limits of attention, Which is seen as Crucial to performance, memory and intelligence. Previous studies, done at the University of Rochester and focused more on young people, Show That heavy use of certainkind off-the-shelf, intense shooting games can lead to improvements in a user’s availability to ignore distractions, and even learn.
Daphne Bavelier, who suffered That research, cautioned That the field is young, and That brain training could have side effects, like changing how the brain functions for the worse.
“We know we can rewire the brain, but the challenge is how to do it properly,” she said. “We’re in the primitive age of brain training.”
The significance of the research seems underscored by the title on the cover of the Nature issue reporting it: Game Changer.
Still, this generation of research came withother strong warnings from neuroscientists, who say it in no way Proved That interacting with computers provided a surefire way to get smarter. Dr.. Miller said most so-called brain games did not work as advertised, and the research shows That Should scientists developping the games and Objectively Test Their Effectiveness.
But he and others said overpriced These developments might sacrifice some antidote to a problem thwart made worse by technology: limited focus Because of constant stimulation and multitasking.
The latest research was the product of a four-year $ 300,000 study done at the University of California, San Francisco. Neuroscientists there, point by Dr.. Adam Gazzaley, worked with developers to create Neuro Racer, a Relatively simple videogame in Which players drive and try to identify specific roadsigns That pop up on the screen, while ignoring other signs deemed irrelevant.
One of the main early findings of the study reinforced just how challenging it is to successfully multitask, Particularly as people age. People In Their 20s experienced a 26 percent drop in performance When They were asked to try to identify signs and drive at the same time (rather than just identify the signs without driving). For people in Their 60s to 80s, the performance drop was 64 percent.
But after the older adults trained at the game, They Became more proficient than untrained people in Their 20s. The performance levels were sustained for six months, even without additional training. Also, the older adults Performed better at memory and attention tests outside the game.
“That is the most grabbing thing here,” Dr.. Gazzaley said. “We Transferred the benefit from inside the game to different cognitive abilities.”
Still, DR. Gazzaley said the findings Should not be taken to suggest That any activity or videogame excellant improvement cognition or lead to brain changes.
“There’s a big leap between what we did here and the real world,” he said. If someone tries to multitask in everyday life, Their performance could remainings steady or be harmed by the divided attention. The tools people use, he said, must have scientific rigor behind them in the same way That training of great athletes stay connected a regime.
The travel researchers created a second layer of proof by monitoring the brainwaves of participants using electroencephalography. What they found Was That the older Participants, In Their 60s to 80s, therewere Increases in a brain wave called theta, a low-level frequency Associated with attention. When older subjects trained on the game, They Showed Increased bursts of theta, the very types of bursts Regularly seen in people in Their 20s.
“We made the activity in older adult’s prefrontal cortex looks like the activity in younger adult’s prefrontal cortex,” said Dr.. Gazzaley, Referring to a part of the brain Heavily Involved with attention.
David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and an expert in attention and aging, said the use of brain measurement tools Offered important visual evidence That something was changing inside the brain.
“The public and even hard-nosed scientists have this tendency to accept Conclusions through the mechanism of ‘seeing is believing,’” Dr.. Meyer said. “This provides some ‘seeing.’ “
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