Action packed video games improves a person’s visual communication ability, thus promising better treatment for certain visual deficits and better training methods for visually demanding careers, a study said.

"Visual attention is crucial to preventing sensory overload, since the brain is constantly faced with an overwhelming amount of visual information," said Bjorn Hubert-Wallander, the lead researcher from the University of Rochester.

"It's an ability that is especially emphasized during visually demanding activities such as driving a car or searching for a friend's face in a crowd, so it is not surprising that scientists have long been interested in ways to modify, extend, and enhance the different facets of visual attention."

The study published reviewed in WIREs Cognitive Science said that video games condition human brains to pick the relevant information from among a heap of irrelevant visual communication data, thus improving the ability to succeed in visually demanding activities like driving, military operations etc.

This study finding can also revolutionize the modern education scenario and military training. "Just as drivers have to focus on the road, other cars, and potential obstacles while ignoring other information, modern action games place heavy attentional demands on players," said Hubert-Wallander. "These games require players to aim and shoot accurately in the center of the screen while continuously tracking other enemies and fast moving objects."

The study points out that only the fast paced, action packed video games that demand more attention from the player improves visual attention.

"At the core of these action video game-induced improvements appears to be a remarkable enhancement in the ability to flexibly and precisely control attention, a finding that could have a variety of real-world applications," said Shawn Green, a member of the research team. "For example, those in professions that demand "super-normal" visual attention, such as fighter pilots, would benefit enormously from enhanced visual attention, as their performance and lives depend on their ability to react quickly and accurately to primarily visual information."