No one knows for certain but video games appear to help a number of different areas of the brain. Most people focus on the negative aspects of which there are many. Playing video games may impact the hand-eye co-ordination of adults too. Read on. --------- "I use the same hand-eye coordination to play video games as I use for surgery," said Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, 49, who demonstrated the results of his study Tuesday at Beth Israel Medical Center. Laparoscopic surgery — using a tiny camera and instruments controlled by joysticks outside the body — is performed on just about any part of the body, from an appendix to the colon and gall bladder." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4685909/ "Playing many of the modern video games requires some sort of skill. The player is required to do quite a bit to "win." There are many things going on in the game at once. For example, the character may be running and shooting at the same time. This requires the real-world player to keep track of the position of the character, where he/she is heading, their speed, where the gun is aiming, if the gunfire is hitting the enemy, and so on. All these factors need to be taken into account, and then the player must then coordinate the brain's interpretation and reaction with the movement in their hands and fingertips. This process requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and visual-spatial ability to be successful. A relationship has been shown between increased videogame playing and improvements to eye-hand coordination, as well as manual dexterity, and reaction time (Drew & Waters, 1986). Some true experiments would greatly help to support this claim." http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html

Video games were first introduced in the 1970s. By the end of that decade they had become a preferred childhood leisure activity, and adults responded with concern about the possible ill effects of the games on children. Early research on these effects was inconclusive. However, a resurgence in video game sales that began in the late 1980s after the introduction of the Nintendo system has renewed interest in examining the effects of video games. Some research suggests that playing video games may affect some children's physical functioning. Effects range from triggering epileptic seizures to causing heart rate and blood pressure changes. Serious adverse physical effects, however, are transient or limited to a small number of players. Research has also identified benefits associated with creative and prosocial uses of video games, as in physical rehabilitation and oncology (Funk, 1993). Proponents of video games suggest that they may be a friendly way of introducing children to computers, and may increase children's hand-eye coordination and attention to detail.

Video games help on concentration since you most times you try to have to accomplish something,and you concentrate on it getting done. That and sometimes it helps kids learn on how to get out of tight situations by thinking of a new way to get out instead of the obvious.

I'm not sure if any formal studys have been made but I think video games do help hand-eye coordiation. you also develop a sense of direction as you wander around in the virtual world. Some of the games are quite complicated and problem solving skills are boosted as well.

Video games help Digital Dexterity, social benefits, and Motor skills for the future.

the funny thing is that I'm in high school on the varsity baseball team and i was always bad at base ball until started playing video games. My hand-eye coordination has drastically improved and my batting average is amazing

I'm not sure how many tests were done with children, but it has been proven that it sharpens hand to eye coordination in older folks, and because of this, war and flight simulators are often used as part of a jet pilot's training sessions. There are a lot of soldiers here on Answerbag though...maybe one could confirm this? this is what I've read, but I'm not sure if it's true or not, about the training I mean.