A team of researchers from McGill University in Montreal (Canada) published a study in the journal Current Biology showing that the game of Tetris could help people with “lazy eyes” or amblyopia. This disease is an eye disorder in children where one of the two eyes does not develop properly. One of the most common causes of poor eye development is “strabismus”. It could also be that one eye cannot focus with the other because of a myopia or stronger hyperopia. In these cases, the brain somehow suppresses the more defocused eye and the child gets used to seeing only with the better eye. Usually, the treatment for amblyopia involves covering the child’s “good eye” so that the weaker eye is forced to work.
The Canadian team wanted to experiment with a new mode of processing using the Tetris video game. To do this, they equipped 2 groups of 9 adults with video glasses. The glasses of the first group allowed one eye to see the brick fall while the other eye only saw the accumulation of bricks at the bottom of the screen. Participants in the second group also wore video glasses but their “good eye” was hidden in order to work only their weaker eye. Each group had to wear these glasses for 1 hour per day for 2 weeks.
At the end of the study, the researchers noticed that the first group, the one that used both eyes, had made significant progress compared to the second group.
With this study, the researchers believe that this technique may be a good treatment alternative, especially in adults. It is indeed much less restrictive than the lazy and effective covering of the eye since the fact of making the two eyes work together considerably improves vision. And, good news for those who find that Tetris is a bit outdated, this treatment could be effective with other video games!
