The University of Melbourne wants to find out whether playing video games can boost the attention span of people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). New research suggests video gamers beat non-gamers in their visual attention to objects and their visual attention in both time and space, abilities often damaged after brain injury. The researchers want people with a TBI with a history of loss or alteration of consciousness lasting longer than 30 minutes. They will then record patients eye movements in baseline testing sessions completed daily over 5 consecutive days, before the video game training starts. Participants will then get 10 hours video game training over 2 weeks, and be tested both midway and at the end of the training, as well as one month afterwards.

The University of Melbourne will pay participants $10 per game training session as well as reimburse travel costs (public transportation or parking fees). Participants need to be able to get to the University of Melbourne.

If you’re interested in participating, an information sheet about the study will be sent to you. Please contact Elham Azizi on (0450) 929 715 or email eazizi@student.unimelb.edu.au