Saturday, March 11, 2006

Video games to help with ADHD

Finally, some good press for the industry. A clinical psychologist in Florida has patented a game system that helps patients with ADHD increase focus and attention. The system works with off the shelf games and patients put on a big helmet that scans brainwaves. US Today article is here, via Kotaku.

I hope this works and it totally makes sense to me. Very few activities put me in a zone quite like that from games. In fact, I hate to admit this, but I do something I'd like to call the gamer bark. What's that you say? Oh, you know what I'm talking about, you're playing Halo and then...

Sig. Other/Mom/Friend/Roommate walk into the room and says, "Wah waaah, wah, wah wah."

Your brain thinks, * Covenant scum, 6 o'clock... reload, reload! *

"Wah.. waah waah!? Wah!"

* If only I had one of these on the freeway *

"Wah!"

* Huh, what, who'zat? *

The surprise of the real world so viciously rips you away from Halo that your brain doesn't have time to pull back the pleasantries and manners you've learned these many years into play and so no real words come out, just a noise, "Rwarrryavant?" That, my friends, is the bark.

The ADHD video game treatment system, side effects may include barking.

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