If you're like me, you've heard people tell you a million times
that video games will screw up your eyes. Well, guess what?
Turns out video games can actually make your (lazy) eye all
better. That's right. Using games to improve your health isn't
just for Wii fit any more. Researchers at the University of
California Berkeley have found that playing video games can
significantly improve both depth perception and visual acuity
for people with lazy eye. As it turns out lazy eye, whose
scientific nomenclature is "amblyopia," is a neurological
disorder, not a problem with motor control or muscular
alignment. The look that we usually associate with amblyopia -
one eye looking off to the side - is actually a different issue
altogether, called strabismus, that sometimes co-occurs with
amblyopia (called strabismic amblyopia). Therapy for amblyopia
usually consists of some poor kid wearing a patch over one eye
until their youthful neurons (which are renowned for their
plasticity) are exercised up to a healthy (or perha