Want a sharper memory? Play more 3-D games

Good news for gamers as three-dimensional video games not only provide great fun, but can also boost the formation of memories.

Washington DC: It's great news for gamers everywhere as it has been revealed that three-dimensional video games not only provide great fun, but can also boost the formation of memories, according to a new study.

The research held by University of California revealed that these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time and also shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people, who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.

During the research non-gamer college students were recruited to play either a video game with a passive, two-dimensional environment or one with an intricate, 3-D setting for 30 minutes per day over two weeks.

As a result, students playing the 3-D video game improved their scores on the memory test, while the 2-D gamers did not.

Lead researcher Dane Clemenson said that firstly the 3-D games have a few things the 2-D ones do not, like they've got a lot more spatial information in there to explore and secondly, they're much more complex, with a lot more information to learn.

Stark added that it's unclear whether the overall amount of information and complexity in the 3-D game or the spatial relationships and exploration is stimulating the hippocampus.

The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.