Study: Video Games Good for Seniors

Video games aren’t just for pre-teens and teenagers hanging out in their parents’ basements. Nintendo has shown us, through games like Brain Age and Wii Fit, that just about anyone can get in on the video game action. This latest study should come as little surprise, but Reuters is reporting that a study shows “older adults who played a videogame for a month demonstrated improved scores on tests of their cognitive functions, including memory, reasoning, and multi-tasking.”

I’ve been convincing my parents for years that video games are good for me. Forget about the excessive violence in some titles for a moment. Cast aside those suggestive scenes in Grand Theft Auto. With many more games, players have the opportunity to improve their hand-eye coordination, concentration, and all sorts of other good things. And this is great for people in their senior years too, because it works great for aging brains.

Interestingly, the study involved getting half of the adult participants (in their 60s and 70s) to play Rise of Nations, a real-time strategy game from 2003. That’s right. Gramps should be playing more Starcraft, less Wii Music.

Source: 1Up.com

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