Researchers explained that video games are not only for relaxation and entertainment, but can also reveal
47 adults aged 60 to 79 sharedinto two groups to test the effect of the game. One group played the musical rhythm game Rhythmicity and the other group played the standard word search game for 20 minutes every day, five days a week, for eight weeks.
As the participants progress in the game, the methodsRhythmicity, which focused on visual perception and selective attention, had an impact on short-term memory through a face recognition exercise.
“As expected, only the group trainingrhythm showed an improvement in short-term memory in the face recognition task. This means that musical rhythm training may improve performance on non-musical tasks,” the research team wrote in the published study.
The Rhythmicity program was created together with the formerGrateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, she taught people how to play rhythm on a tablet using visual cues. As the players progressed, the pace, difficulty, and level of accuracy were adjusted. The uniqueness of the game lies in the fact that it is able to adjust the level of difficulty depending on the user, pushing him to improve without compromising the gameplay.
The authors of the study have been working in this area since2013 when they created the video game NeuroRacer, which was found to significantly improve working memory and sustained attention in older adults after four weeks of play.
“These games all have the same basic adaptivealgorithms and approach, but they use very different types of activity. And in all of them, we show that it is possible to improve cognitive abilities,” said neuroscientist Adam Gazzalei from UCSF.
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