Visual Training May Have Scored Baseball Team 5 Additional Wins

New research suggests we can "train" our vision.

Riverside baseball players found that practicing on and ipad for "25 minutes a day, [four] days a week, for [two] months" could help our brains see better, a Cell Press news release reported.

"The demonstration that seven players reached 20/7.5 acuity-the ability to read text at three times the distance of a normal observer-is dramatic and required players to stand forty feet back from the eye chart in order to get a measurement of their vision," Aaron Seitz of the University of California, Riverside, said in the news release.

Having 20/20 is considered normal visual acuity, the news release reported.

The participants were asked to look for visual patterns that were designed to stimulate neurons in the early visual cortex. The patterns became progressively dimmer as the game progressed.

"The goal of the program is to train the brain to better respond to the inputs that it gets from the eye," Seitz said. "As with most other aspects of our function, our potential is greater than our normative level of performance. When we go to the gym and exercise, we are able to increase our physical fitness; it's the same thing with the brain. By exercising our mental processes we can promote our mental fitness."

After the two-month training period the players reported they were able to see the ball "much better" as well as having a heightened peripheral vision and the ability to see farther. They were also able to see low-contrasting things and had more visual stamina.

The players exhibited " greater-than-expected" improvements in their game play; they were less likely to strike out and got more runs. The team is believed to have achieved an additional four or five wins as a result of their visual training.

"Understanding the rules of brain plasticity unlocks great potential for improvement of health and wellbeing," Seitz said.

Real Time Analytics