Put away the knitting

AGEING is a daunting process, not least because some of the first things to fail are also the most useful, such as memory, attention and motor skills. The idea that some form of regular mental activity—doing a crossword, for example—can postpone mental decline is not new. Now researchers have found another: playing a certain type of video game could help the elderly stay sharper for longer.

Video games can be fun but whether they serve any useful purpose beyond keeping some young people confined to their bedrooms is questionable. In a 2010 study thousands of volunteers spent six weeks playing video games but showed virtually no improvement in performance of cognitive tasks that were not related to the game when compared with non-players. The players’ gaming skills improved, but the prowess did not extend to other cognitive areas.