Will your game playing kid grow up to be a doctor?
CNN.com – Study: Video games can help cut surgical errors – May 24, 2006
Surgeons who warmed up by playing video games like “Super Monkey Ball” for 20 minutes immediately prior to performing surgical drills were faster and made fewer errors than those who did not, said Dr. James “Butch” Rosser, lead investigator on the study slated for release Wednesday.
My kids bought me “Super Monkey Ball” for the DS for my birthday. It’s a great little game. You play an adorable monkey in a bubble, and use the stylus or buttons to control the terrain under your bubble. It’s a simple game, but takes amazing concentration. You have to internalize the movements and get your brain aligned with the motion of your monkey. That being the case, it doesn’t surprise me that surgeons demonstrated increase accuracy and speed after playing.
SMB is a wonderful party game for the GameCube, and if you buy it on the DS you can use the download feature to play with other who do not have their own copies. Next time you see a kid playing, mention to them that surgeons have found it useful and ask them if they’ve considered medical school!
