Disclaimer: Данная публикация находится в стадии сбора фактологического материала. Будем признательны за получение любой информации касающейся данной темы.




A study by Dr. Bryan Raudenbush at the Wheeling Jesuit University has indicated that video games can be an effective method of distracting from pain, if not actually relieving it. Raudenbush has completed a study, called "Effects of Video Game Play on Pain Threshold and Tolerance," that examines the psychological effect of games on pain sufferers.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=6696

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7939





a study conducted at Beth Israel Medical Center by Dr. Rosser, found a significant correlation between video-game experience and proficiency at laparascopic surgery. According to the study, surgeons who currently play or previously played video games had a 37 percent reduction in errors and accomplish laparoscopic surgical tasks 27 percent quicker. “The studies confirm what some physicians have long suspected – video games can be natural teachers,” says Dr. Mogel. “However, this probably has been unintended by the game designers.”

http://gamenmed.com/news.html



http://www.igniq.com/2005/09/studies-suggest-games-can-flex-your.html

John Tyler has passed on an interesting story about a number of scientific tests that show gaming can be good for exercising the mind similar to the way physical exertion exercises the body.

New research has been carried out at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, that tested whether surgeons performing laparoscopic surgery were better at their jobs if they also enjoyed playing video games.

Laparoscopic or keyhole surgery is similar to gaming in that a joystick or other kind of controller is used to control a fiber-optic camera inserted within the patient's body, and the results suggest that an interest in gaming is a definite advantage:
“The results were really astounding,” he says. “First of all, if you played video game [at any time] in the past, it was found that you were significantly faster and, more importantly, you created fewer errors than people who had no previous video game experience. Then when we looked at whether you were a current video gamer, we found that if you played video games currently, you were over 30 percent better — faster, and created fewer errors — than someone who did not play video games at all.”

Another test by a psychology professor at the University of St. Louis found that gamers were faster and more efficient when asked to search for a specific object displayed among similar objects projected on a computer screen.

Alas though, all this research doesn't mean staying up all night playing World of Warcraft will turn you into a genius:
The mental improvement from video games is clearly there. However, [Butch Rosser, director of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel] does point out that surgeons perform better with just three hours of video game play per week. Rosser goes on to say to kids “That Butch Rosser would not be here in this capacity if he played video games and did not have good grades, did not develop perseverance. And I would say to that child out there that thinks that they got a free pass to play video games carte blanche, I say ‘Nooo, sadly mistaken.”



http://www.game-research.com/art_other_worlds.asp



_HOW VIDEO GAMES WILL CHANGE HUMAN BIOLOGY



Human beings are distinctly different from other mammals in one major way. They have evolved an intricate brain that becomes more specialized with the changing environmental niche. For example: instead of growing a fur coat, humans' brains have evolved to learn to hunt down a bear, and use its fur to keep warm on a frosty night. Similarly, Neanderthals lacked the speech sophistication of modern society. Overtime, a particular area in the brain called Broca's Region developed in cohesion with the Occipital lobe (responsible for vision) to control complex speech patterns permitting human communication. There are various theories on how and why such physical and mental evolutions occur (most commonly Darwinism) however, they are insignificant for now. The important factor is that the human body, physically and mentally transforms over time to accommodate for the environment that surrounds it.

Now let us turn to the topic of interest: the relationship between sensory stimuli and perceptual experience; in particular visual perception in human beings. Take the visual phenomenon called 'blind sight' first tested by Dr. Larry Weiskrantz, a scientist at Oxford University in England. Weiskrantz noticed that one of his patients, Drew, was able to distinguish whether or not a ruler was in front of him when held in the 'blind' or 'invisible' region. He was also able to distinguish whether or not the ruler was horizontal or vertical. The reason that this was so astonishing was that Drew was completely blind (Ramachandran 76). This phenomena has now been resolved as the result of two different visual pathways: 1) the new pathway or 'how' pathway in the parietal lobe concerned with grasping, navigation, and other spatial functions 2) and the phylogenic ally primitive old pathway or 'what' pathway in the temporal lobe concerned with recognizing objects. In the case of Drew, the second pathway was left in tact. Blind sight phenomena (the awareness of an object that one can not consciously perceive) can be shown with any human being that has a working 'old' pathway(Beumont 112).

Another example of obscure visual perception is called hemi-neglect. In Dr. Ramachandran's book, "Phantoms in the Brain" he describes a woman named Ellen who completely neglects everything in her left visual field. When Ellen puts on makeup, she fails to do so on the left side of her face. When she prepares a meal, she fails to do so on the left side. When she draws a picture of a square, she only draws the right half. Ellen suffers from damage to her right parietal lobe and thus only perceives in her left visual sphere.

There are many other disorders of body image and spatial orientation. Anosognosia for example, stems from a right-sided lesion resulting in unawareness of the disposition of one's limbs. A person might have only one arm but will be completely unaware of this. Achromotopsia results in a colorless world. Astergoenisis leaves a person unable to recognize objects by touch (Beumont 73). Synethesia is a phenomenon that causes a person to associate particular colors with specific numbers. For example, when shown the number 1 or 5, a person may always see 1 as red and 5 as green. Similarly, there are psychological disorders such as temporal lobe epilepsy and schizophrenia that can completely alter a person's perceptions, resulting in visual hallucinations (perceiving a world that exists outside the realm of visual reality). All of this is important because it shows that human perception is not fixed. Rather it is a specialized to certain areas of the brain and can be altered when these specific regions change.

Think of the world as an interface with which a person interacts. In an article that interviews Jodi, she describes a computer interface as

"A translation of code and your understanding is what you believe and that's all there is to a computer, it's a language. On the desktop the lid of the trashcan is open, and you believe there is something inside, then you have to place your garbage out and so goes the story"

Visual reality is no different. A persons' brain translates sensory input into a language the rest of the body can understand. When someone sets an alarm for 7:00 a.m., that someone believes that he will wake up and it will be morning. This is perception but that's all it is. These beliefs will change as the language that determines them adapts to new sensations. For example, the sensation of time may become extinct in the future. Time is just a way for humans to explain phenomenon of night and day and change. Man of the future may be made from fields of energy where the constraint of time is no longer needed. When this day comes, the areas of the brain specialized for evaluating time will have died off.

As technology advances, dependency on computers will increase. Games like Everquest will only improve. The mass production of virtual reality will no longer be a figment of our imaginations. Soon a person will be able to strap on a helmet and become immersed in virtual worlds for seemingly endless amounts of time. People will spend more time connected to their computers than connected to visual reality. At this point, a complete metamorphosis of the human brain will have transpired and visual perception as we know it will have evolved. Imagine this:

"He sits connected to a virtual world for twenty four hours a day. However, this world is no longer virtual. It has merged with reality. He is able to drag different thoughts simultaneously in front of him. He can view these thoughts just as modern man would an image on his computer. He can save these thoughts, edit these thoughts, copy these thoughts and send them to a friend. Yet he is not connected to a physical network or computer. The world is his network and he has become a computer. He is able to walk, run, eat, work, excrete, and shake hands however these are primitive tasks which are now carried out automatically by the motor cortex. There is no longer a link between the sensory and motor world. Man of the future no longer visually perceives that he is eating. His visual perception is far too complex for such an unnecessary aesthetic" (Alex Hawkins).

Everquest Online marks a major point in the assimilation of virtual and visual reality. It provides the spectacle but couples it with the necessary psychological and emotional stimulation needed to alter the brain. As video games become more realistic, their appeal will increase proportionally. The more time man spends connected to this world, the more the his brain will begin to perceive this as it's new environmental niche. Over time, the specialized regions in primarily the Occipital Lobe, which determine visual perception, will have changed to better survive in their new environment. The brain will have evolved, fusing both virtual and visual reality into one.

http://www.tmpspace.com/icam_120/files/reviews/project1.htm




во как еще:

В западной литературе подчеркивается возра стающая роль компьютерной игры как инстру мента диагностики и реабилитации [38]. В насто ящее время компьютерные игры используются как средство помощи детям с нарушениями навы ков письменной речи [66], в связи с трудностями обучения счету [29], нарушениями пространствен ного различения по причине астигматизма [90], для компенсации речевых нарушений у невроло гических пациентов .....


КОМПЬЮТЕРНАЯ ИГРА: НОВАЯ ОБЛАСТЬ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ[1]
©1999г. С.А.Шапкин
http://psy-games.narod.ru/USE/shapkin.htm#_ftnref2



About Re-Mission and re-mission.net

Re-Mission is a PC-based video game rated "T" (for Teen) and is available though re-mission.net. Re-Mission.net also serves as an interactive, online community for teens and young adults, who are often isolated as a result of their disease. The site is designed to allow teens with cancer to connect with each other and share information. The game, which is available in English, French and Spanish, is free of charge to teens and young people living with cancer and will be available to others in May at a suggested donation of $20.

http://www.hopelab.org/remission.html

Тренажер для хирургов The SimSurgery® Education Platform (SEP™) is a general platform for computer based surgical training and education. It is a complete learning system including both hardware and software components that emulates the real laparoscopic situation. http://www.simsurgery.no/



ОЧЕНЬ ПОЛЕЗНЫЙ ДОКУМЕНТ A Taxonomy of Serious Games for Education in the Healthcare Professions

Drawing from four resources (literature, Internet, Games for Health Conference, Serious Games Summit), this session presents a taxonomy of serious games for healthcare professions' education, differentiates types and uses of these games, and identifies games on the horizon. Relevant areas for serious game development are proposed.

http://www.uwf.edu/atc/web_casts/games/russell2005.pdf



http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=3418 Virtual Surgeon: Open Heart is the fourth and unfortunately last medical simulation game designed by Dr. Myo Thant, a Timonium oncologist whose first game Life and Death became an instant classic when it was first published by Software Toolworks. Published by his own company ISM Interactive, Virtual Surgeon didn't sell well enough to cover Dr. Thant's costs, and as a result the company was disbanded.



Educational Games - The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize has been awarded to people and organizations every year since 1901, with a few exceptions such as during World War II. Alfred Nobel, the man behind the prize, invented dynamite and experimented in making synthetic rubber, leather and artificial silk. By the time of his death in 1896 he had acquired 355 patents. Play a game and find out about a Nobel Prize awarded discovery or work!

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/