VIOLENT video games can improve visual skills and reaction times used in activities such as driving, according to new research.

People who regularly play action-based computer games such as Grand Theft Auto and Tomb Raider process visual information quicker and more accurately than those who do not. The findings suggest that the games, which are often criticised for dulling the minds of compulsive players, can actually have positive effects, and could be useful for teaching and developing a wide range of skills.

The games could be used to improve poor driving, to rehabilitate stroke patients and even to train soldiers for combat, experts at the University of Rochester in New York State said.

They began their researchafter Daphne Bavelier, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, noticed that one of her students, Shawn Green, recorded exceptional scores at a new set of visual tests she was devising.

When Mr Green told her that he was an avid video game player, the pair decided to test whether the rapid action that takes place on the computer screen can train the brain to respond more efficiently to particular stimuli.

Aficionados of action games — all of whom were male, as only one keen female player could be found on the university campus — were given three tests of visual alertness, and compared with a control group of non-players.

In all the tests, which measured how well people can track multiple objects moving at once, count objects that appear only briefly, and pick out and recall fleeting visual information, the players performed significantly better.

“Players can process visual information more quickly and can track 30 per cent more objects than non-players,” Dr Bavelier said. “Several game players even achieved perfect scores on tests barely doable for non-players.” To ensure that the results did not simply show that people with good visual skills were more likely to play action games, the team devised a test to see whether the games could actually improve these skills from scratch.

A group of male and female non-players were split into two, with one set playing the action game Medal of Honor for at least an hour a day, and the other playing Tetris, which involves assembling shapes.

After two weeks of training, the action group performed much better on all the visual tests, while the Tetris players did not.

The results, details of which are published today in the journal Nature, suggest that the high pressure and complex stimuli involved in action games may help the brain to respond to similar situations in real life. In many of these games, players must shoot enemies that appear suddenly on their screens while avoiding friendly characters.

“It’s likely the sense of danger heightens awareness and trains the visual response of the brain, but other aspects might contribute,” Mr Green said. “On the other hand, the Tetris players, while scoring low on our tests, might score well if testing for abilities to rotate and organise objects.”

Dr Bavelier said: “It leads to detectable effects on new tasks . . . after only ten days of training. Therefore, although video game-playing may seem to be rather mindless, it is capable of radically altering visual attentional processing.”

The researchers now plan to design a non-violent action game, in the hope that it might be used to help patients who have lost visual skills after suffering strokes to recover their abilities.

DEBATE

Should children be encouraged to play video games?

E-mail your views to debate@thetimes.co.uk