• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 28, 2010

Casual online games can improve cognitive function in people who play them, according to the preliminary results of new research from East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab. The findings, based on six months of laboratory observations, were presented at the sixth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston and simultaneously announced by PopCap games, which operates two of the games studied by the East Carolina researchers, Bejeweled and Peggle (PopCap was not a sponsor of the independent study).

According to the East Carolina research using electroencephalography (EEG) brain waves and standardized tests, short-term cognitive acuity showed consistent improvement in experimental groups of test subjects playing games relative to control groups of non-players. Casual gaming seemed to improve both the speed (cognitive response time) and accuracy (executive function) of decision-making. Subjects who played Bejeweled or Peggle for 30 minutes showed an 87% improvement in cognitive response time and a 215% increase in executive functioning in comparison to the control group.

Dr. Carmen Russoniello, director of East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic, remarked: "The initial results of the study are very intriguing, in that they suggest that the 'active participation' required while playing a casual video game like Bejeweled provides an opportunity for mental exercise that more passive activities, like watching television, do not."

Previously, doctors have recommended regular mental exercise -- for example, doing crossword puzzles or Sudoku -- to help elderly patients avoid or mitigate the negative effects of aging on cognitive functions. Casual gaming could become another tool in this armory, according to Russoniello, who said: "Future applications could include prescriptive applications using casual video games to potentially stave off Alzheimer's disease and other dementia-type disorders."