Using Duke Nukem To Diagnose Depression

Studies

from the see,-video-games-are-good-for-you dept

There have been all sorts of reports over the last few years suggesting ways in which video games may actually be good for people, but this latest one certainly may come as a surprise. Engadget points us to a story about some researchers who have determined that a modified version of the video game Duke Nukem can help diagnose and measure depression. Apparently, the researchers noticed that depression impacts the part of the brain that deals with “spatial memory,” so setting up a test for spatial memory could help show the extent of depression. They took individuals who were already familiar with the game, and asked them to find certain landmarks in a virtual town within the game. Those who were depressed reached noticeably fewer landmarks in the time given than those who were not depressed. Of course, the article just gives the average scores of the two groups, rather than any details on the standard deviation, which would be pretty important here. Unfortunately, there’s no word on how the decade of waiting for Duke Nukem Forever plays into the depressive state of these video gamers, but if anyone could show how it could be the cure for depression, perhaps the publishers would finally get around to releasing the champion of all vaporware.