Do video games help with senile dementia?

The development of a computer game for the treatment of senile dementia has begunCopper news based on PhysOrg materials: Study to see if video games can boost thinking skills in elderly
American scientists have received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the possibility of video games to improve memory and thinking in older people.

With positive research results, a prototype of the game designed for this purpose will be developed.

Scientists from the University of North Carolina and the Georgia Institute of Technology plan to conduct the study in two phases. During the first one, it will be established whether video games in principle have qualities that can positively influence such mental processes of older people as memory, decision-making, critical thinking, etc.

In the second phase, the analysis of specific elements of the games that most strongly stimulate these processes will be carried out. Based on its results, the researchers plan to write recommendations for potential developers of a new type of therapeutic video games, as well as create a prototype of such a game.

This is not the first attempt to use video games to help elderly people with impaired mental functions. At the end of last year, scientists from the University of Illinois found an improvement in the indicators of switching between tasks, memory functioning and task setting in elderly people who played "Rise of Nations".

Computer games were used for the psychological adaptation of soldiers returning from Iraq and the development of spatial thinking and sleight of hand among surgeons. In addition, studies have shown the benefits of first-person shooters for vision.