The game is called Sea Hero Quest and was used in a huge study, conducted between 2016 and 2019, on more than 4 million players all over the world. The idea was to bring together a huge database to understand how men, women and citizens of various countries, whether they were city dwellers or from rural areas, identified themselves in space. From there, the game aimed to participate in the detection of early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Explanations according to one of the creators, Antoine Coutrot, researcher at the CNRS, who recounts the experience on the site The Conversation.
We rarely see video games as useful activities, and yet, the latter is a tool of behavioral sciences, on the question of spatial ability. The creators of Sea Hero Quest, after analyzing player data (age, country, life context, etc.), realized that we had a better sense of direction when we lived in the countryside than to the city, even if depending on the country, this is not always so significant.
Of course, the navigation carried out in the game was intended to reproduce our modes of travel in real life, and not only in the virtual universe. After being verified, the researchers published their results in the review Plos One.
A diagnostic tool with a large database
This discovery is interesting because it allows us to have a statistical idea of the spatial landmarks of each person, according to their age, sex, etc. In fact, with a large database on the issue, we can make comparisons and have some leads to make a diagnosis.
Gold, the spatial orientation test is part of the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, which makes it possible to suspect the disease at an early stage. But we can be very bad on the question without having any dementia… To be able to define whether our ability to locate ourselves in space is normal or worrying, we need tools of comparison, and the wider they are, the better c ‘East ! With its 4 million users, Sea Hero Quest offers a solid tool to make this observation.
Read also:
- Alzheimer’s: 10 daily habits that increase the risk
- In 30 years, the number of cases of dementia will triple
