title: Playing Action Video Games Improves Visuomotor Control.
abstract: Can playing action video games improve visuomotor control? If so, can these games be used in training people to perform daily visuomotor-control tasks, such as driving? We found that action gamers have better lane-keeping and visuomotor-control skills than do non-action gamers. We then trained non-action gamers with action or nonaction video games. After they played a driving or first-person-shooter video game for 5 or 10 hr, their visuomotor control improved significantly. In contrast, non-action gamers showed no such improvement after they played a nonaction video game. Our model-driven analysis revealed that although different action video games have different effects on the sensorimotor system underlying visuomotor control, action gaming in general improves the responsiveness of the sensorimotor system to input error signals. The findings support a causal link between action gaming (for as little as 5 hr) and enhancement in visuomotor control, and suggest that action video games can be beneficial training tools for driving.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong Neural Science Program, NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University Shanghai ll114@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Rongrong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: action video game; driving; driving game; first-person-shooter game; visuomotor control