If you’re an older adult that’s stepped away from the video game console, you might want to reconsider your decision. A study led by Adam Gazzaley of the University of California San Francisco tested a 3-D driving game on a group of older adults and discovered that playing the game did improve a person’s multitasking skills.
“The researchers looked at the performance of a group of 16 people aged 60 to 85. They found that just 12 hours of training spread over a month dramatically improved the ability of the individuals in the group to pick out the right signs. Some people even did as well or better than 20-year-olds playing for the first time.â€
The game, “NeuroRacer,†forced players to keep an animated car on a changing, curving, animated road, according to NBC News
. At the same time, images of colored geometric shapes appear and players are expected to click only on certain ones.The full research report is available in the journal Nature.