Want a sharper memory? Play more 3-D games

It's great news for gamers everywhere as it has been revealed that three-dimensional video games not only provide great fun, but can also boost the formation of memories, according to a new study.

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The research held by University of California revealed that these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time and also shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people, who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.

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During the research non-gamer college students were recruited to play either a video game with a passive, two-dimensional environment or one with an intricate, 3-D setting for 30 minutes per day over two weeks.

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As a result, students playing the 3-D video game improved their scores on the memory test, while the 2-D gamers did not.

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Lead researcher Dane Clemenson said that firstly the 3-D games have a few things the 2-D ones do not, like they've got a lot more spatial information in there to explore and secondly, they're much more complex, with a lot more information to learn.

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Stark added that it's unclear whether the overall amount of information and complexity in the 3-D game or the spatial relationships and exploration is stimulating the hippocampus.

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The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.