When people think of video games, they usually associate it with leisure time or a hobby of some children. However, the use of video games has evolved and is becoming a major player in medicine. Here is an article about a 9-year-old boy who was in a car crash, suffered a month-long coma, and was declared to never again eat, walk, or talk on his own. Thanks to video game systems, the boy is now has equivalent skills with his other peers in school. The video game therapy allowed him to fully open his right hand that used to be paralyzed closed, and it has helped improve other functions such as memory. Using games is a newer toy of treatment being used in medicine due to the increased popularity of electronics and animation. Video games are not only used to help those who have suffered brain damage, but also a useful tool to make anxiety and pain more manageable for sick children in a hospital, and children who suffer from ADHD and learning disabilities.
Do you see video games being incorporated into the another field of medicine in the future? How about any other fields or departments outside of medicine?
-Jen Joseph
The Fantastic Four
I would have never connected the idea of "gaming" to medicine. While I normally consider cures to things as something serious, this is a very interesting post of how gaming can essentially save someone or help them improve. Something that this pose reminded me of was a video I watched in my Psychology class regarding a man about 85 years old who got a stroke. While he essentially lost all mobility in his left arm, due to a loss of neurons in his brain, doctors had told him that he would not regain mobility on his left side for the rest of his life. Although this is the case, a test was done to see whether or not he would be able to improve performance with his arm. In doing so, the man was placed in a facility that would conduct multiple repetitions of him trying to flip dominos over and over again for a long period of time. While doctors were highly confident that the treatment would not work, the manipulation of not allowing him to use his right arm to complete this task, or game, eventually allowed him to greatly improve. In the end of the video, the old man was proud to have been able to pick up and successfully eat a whole hamburger on his own! This is a great example of how gaming can help improve one's health, even when you least expect it!
ReplyDelete- Brigitte