PHILADELPHIA: Playing three dimensional video games may protect against the dulling of memory that comes with age, a study has found.
Scientists believe 3D gaming could provide a novel treatment for people affected by age-related memory loss or dementia.
Student volunteers playing the game Super Mario 3D World boosted their performance in memory tests by around 12% – roughly the amount it normally decreases by between the ages of 45 and 70.
But playing a less involving two dimensional game, Angry Birds did not have the same beneficial effect.
3D games are thought to stimulate the hippocampus, a brain region vital to memory that shrinks with age and is damaged by Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.