Abstract
Purpose :
Video gaming is often linked to visual perception alterations. However, it is unclear whether a single session of gaming affects higher visual processing skills differently among skilled gamers and unskilled gamers. The current prospective interventional study investigated the effect of single-session Call of Duty Modern Warfare II (CoD), an action video, among skilled and nonskilled CoD gamers, on lower and higher visual processing.
Methods :
21 adults (27.19 ± 3.54) with normal vision participated in a 50-min session of CoD. Participants self-reported gaming habits via a questionnaire; skill in CoD was gauged using the Kill/Death (K/D) ratio, with an average K/D > 1.00 indicating skill. Pre- and post-gaming psychophysical measures were conducted for visual acuity, global motion perception (GMP; direction discrimination for random-dot-kinematograms), global form perception (GFP; Glass pattern discrimination), speed threshold for multiple object tracking (MOT), time threshold for static numerosity judgment task (static frames from the MOT task with 8 ± 1 elements presented temporally), visual search (VS) time for 5, 10, 15, and 20 targets.
Results :
The frequency of gaming had a strong association with K/D ratio (r = 0.53, p = 0.014). In the overall cohort, post-gaming revealed significant improvements in GFP (pre: 30.59 ± 12.90%, post: 15.97 ± 9.51%, p < 0.001) and VS times for 10 targets (pre: 839.38 ± 116.90 ms, post: 715.62 ± 108.11, p < 0.001), while other measures of visual perception remained unchanged. Skilled gamers (35.42 ± 11.09%) had significantly worse pre-GFP (40%, t10 = 1.9, p = 0.037) than unskilled gamers (25.27 ± 13.17%). However, skilled gamers showed a significant improvement (skilled: 62%, unskilled: 26%, t10 = -2.9, p = 0.003) in post-video game GFP. Additionally, there was a trend of declining performance in post-video game GMP for skilled gamers (pre: 21.73 ± 20.53%, post: 34.79 ± 18.99%, p = 0.075), while unskilled gamers remained unchanged.
Conclusions :
A short-term session of action video game play significantly improved GFP and VS. The higher improvement in GFP in skilled gamers than unskilled gamers might be linked to better visual adaptability. The trend of reduced performance on the GMP among skilled gamers task requires further investigation to explore any potential compensatory dissociation between ventral (GMP) and dorsal (GFP) processing.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.