Gamers make good surgeons

BOSTON — Parents, don't put away those video games just yet. Today's gamer may be tomorrow's top surgeon.

Researchers in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools — from increasing children's problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.

One study even looked at whether playing "World of Warcraft," the world's biggest multiplayer online game, can improve scientific thinking.

The conclusion? Certain types of video games can have benefits beyond the virtual thrills of blowing up demons.

In one Fordham University study, 122 students in fifth, sixth and seventh grades were asked to think out loud for 20 minutes while playing a game they had never seen before. Researchers studied the children's statements to see if playing the game improved cognitive and perceptual skills.

While older children seemed more interested in just playing the game, younger kids showed more interest in setting up short-term goals needed to help them learn the game.

Studies by Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile and Dr. James Rosser, head of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, compared surgeons who play video games to those who don't.

The edge went to gamer surgeons, they found, even after taking into account differences in age, years of medical training and the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed.

In laparoscopic procedures, surgeons use small incisions, thin surgical tools and video cameras to see inside the body.

One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn't.

Advanced video-game skills also were a good way to predict suturing abilities, according to their study, which was published in 2007.

Research Gentile and Rosser did for a second, as yet unpublished, study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons found those who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity performed better at those skills when tested later compared with surgeons who didn't play videos, Gentile said.

Some videos games even appear to sharpen scientific thinking skills, such as using systems and models for understanding situations and using math and testing to investigate problems.

But the news wasn't all good.

Other studies confirmed earlier research that found students who played violent games tended to be more hostile and less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared with those who played nonviolent games.

And those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were at greater risk of obesity.