> Dr Duke Nukem, psychiatrist
- 15 Mar 07, 09:31 AM
Scenes from the classic shoot ‘em up video game Duke Nukem may help to provide doctors with a means of diagnosing and measuring the severity of depression.
Depression has been linked with the size of the hippocampus, which is a ridge in the brain. This ridge also plays a part in spatial memory, our ability to remember where we are in relation to our surroundings. Whilst measuring depression has proved difficult, measuring spatial memory is easier.
In Duke Nukem, players navigate through futuristic cityscapes, blasting aliens. To test spatial memory, scientists at The US National Institute of Mental Health first asked game players to familiarise themselves with the game’s urban backdrops. They then asked players to remember where as many places were within a set time. It was discovered that those suffering from depression could remember significantly fewer landmarks than those that did not.
Recycling a popular old computer game for scientific research is an imaginative use of technology. It’s also quite ironic that Duke Nukem, one of the first games to be cited as a violent video nasty warping the minds of the youth of the day, has now been re-born as a psychiatric tool.
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