Oct. 10, 2008 -- It's about as different from Grand Theft Auto as you can get.
Last week, insurance provider Allstate sent video games to 100,000 drivers aged 50 to 75 in Pennsylvania. The set of five games, together called InSight and made by Posit Science, are designed to improve the mental acuity of older drivers.
Allstate hopes the pilot program will give customers a more favorable impression of the insurance provider and turn older drivers into safer drivers.
"We expect to see that the group using the software will have a lower frequency of crashes verses the group that didn't use the software," said Tom Warden of Allstate.
Brain training is not a new idea. Japanese game maker Nintendo briefly marketed games designed to reverse certain effects of aging, but they were never scientifically proven to work. Nintendo has since announced that they stopped making brain-training games.
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Allstate and Posit say they have science on their side. Ten hours of game play turns the clock back 10 years in terms of memory, useful field of view, processing visual information, and general cognitive functions, say both companies.
Increased mental acuity leads to safer drivers. Studies, some 20 years old, funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted at the University of Alabama show that similar video games cut the risk of a crash by 50 percent.
The training doesn't only make better drivers, but "it raises the overall quality of life," said Warden. "The benefits are not just in physical activities like driving a car, but also in remembering things more often to have fewer senior moments."
The effects wear off after several months, but replaying the games restores them.
As we age, typically silent neurons in the brain start firing randomly, says Joe Hardy of Posit Science. Scientists aren't entirely sure why this happens, but the increase in activity creates excessive noise. What is clear is that Posit's games help turn down the extra noise and let the brain focus on what is important.
The games train players to identify and track objects amid cluttered backgrounds. In one game, Jewel Diver, a player must keep track of multiple hidden jewels while traveling around a cluttered screen. When driving, the honed ability translates into a better ability to track cars, pedestrians and other roadside objects.
In another game, Route 66, the player identifies a car or truck in the center of the screen while keeping track of periphery signs. Route 66 improves on a player's useful field of vision, or the ability to quickly identify important details and react appropriately to them.
Allstate says that depending on the results of its study, expected to last until March, it may offer drivers a discount on their automobile insurance if they complete the games.
InSight, which retails for about $495 but Allstate provided free of charge, is actually Posit's second brain-training game. It first was focused not on visual but auditory training. Posit is developing brain-training games for other senses, and other groups, such as high-risk teenage drivers.
While it remains to be seen if Posit's software will change the insurance industry, it is already changing how scientists view the brain.
"In the past we thought that the brain was this static object, and after it became fully developed it slowly declined," said Hardy. "Now through the right exercises you can maintain a high level of function coupled with the experience age brings."
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