New Study Reveals Video Games Can Slow Down Mental Decay on Adults

Researchers have found a way to slow down aging via an unconvetional but at the same time conventional way.

A new study released on Wednesday revealed that playing video games can prevent and reverse weakening brain functions for adults. More so, it could improve memory, reasoning and visual processing.

The study performed by the University of Iowa on hundreds of people over 50 years old revealed that those who played video games can reverse up to seven years of age-related brain failures. It also found out that older people who play video games have improved cognitive skills than those who don't.

"We know that we can stop this decline and actually restore cognitive processing speed to people. So, if we know that, shouldn't we be helping people? It's fairly easy, and older folks can go get the training game and play it," explained University of Iowa Public Health professor and lead author of the research study published on PLOS One, Fredric Wolinsky.

In the study, Wolinksy and his team worked with 681 healthy patients. Dividing them into four groups, each group was then split into those 50 to 64 years old and those over 65. One group was given a computerized crossword puzzle, while the other group was asked to play 'Road Tour'--a video game asking players to identify the type of vehicle appearing on a license plate and match it with a number of choices offered.

In the game, the player must win three out of four tries to move to the next level. Distractions were added as the game went on.

"The game starts off with an assessment to determine your current speed of processing. Whatever it is, the training can help you get about 70 percent faster," explained Wolinsky, as reported by the New York Daily News.

According to the results, after one year, those who played the game at least 10 hours gained three years of cognitive improvement. Those who had played the game for four extra hours had gained cognitive improvement of seven years.

"We not only prevented the [cognitive] decline, we actually sped them up," explained Wolinsky.