Computer games reduce pain
| In my previous post 'Absence makes the heart grow weaker' I promised you more about wacky & useless studies (OK - I didn't use this wording but thats pretty much what I ment) and this one from New Scientist does the trick too: Computer games can reduce pain, researchers say, and a high speed virtual death-match is more effective at dulling discomfort than an arcade classic like space invaders. The discovery raises the prospect that trips to the dentist or painful injections could be made easier by providing patients with the right kind of computer game to distract them. Bryan Raudenbush and colleagues at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, US, tested the effects of playing different genres of videogame on subjects receiving painful stimulus. They compared six genres of game - action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sport, and boxing.Half of the participants in the study were a total of 15 minutes to practice and play each game under normal conditions. Then one of their feet was placed in ice cold water and they were instructed to play for up to five minutes more. The control group underwent the same treatment but without having any computer games to play. On average, those subjects playing games were able to withstand the painful icy water for longer than the control group. Furthermore, those given sports or fighting games were able to withstand more pain than those playing any other genre. If you want the whole story go here... This was seized 4 u at New Scientist |
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