Researchers at East Carolina University Psychophysiology Department have revealed their preliminary findings in an ongoing study, that indicate significant increases in short-term cognitive acuity in casual games players. In other words … those that play casual games show improved short term memory functionality.

East Carolina University’s study found that test subjects that were exposed to playing casual games, specifically PopCap’s Bejeweled and Peggle, exhibited improved cognitive functions. The study commenced around the beginning of this year, and will conclude later this year, studies a wide variety of U.S. consumers aged 50 or older. The focus of the study is centered around the effects of games on subjects’ short-term brain power. Initial results indicate that sizeable improvements were made by the experimental group, when compared to the control group.

“The initial results of the study are very intriguing, in that they suggest that the ‘active participation’ required while playing a casual video game like Bejeweled provides an opportunity for mental exercise that more passive activities, like watching television, do not,” said ECU’s Director of Psychophysiology and Biofeedback Clinic, Dr. Carmen Russoniello. “Future applications could include prescriptive applications using casual video games to potentially stave off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-type disorders.”

Over 40 participants have already been studied, with more to come in the coming months. Participants had their brain waves monitored through an Electroencephalography (say that 3x fast), or EEG as it’s better known. The EEG measures participants’ brain waves as they complete a number of cognitive tests. Both speed and accuracy of tests are measured. The study finds that those who played Bejeweled or Peggle for 30 minute periods showed an 87 percent improvement in cognitive response time, and a whopping 215 percent increase in executive functioning over the control group. According to ECU, these changes are on par with similar cognitive interventions such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and cognitive remediation therapy. In other words … playing short amounts of casual games may find their way into medical treatment and therapy in the coming years.

“Video games with more complex rules and controls, and more sophisticated or detailed imagery — so-called ‘hardcore’ video games — might provide similar cognitive benefits for many people,” said Russoniello. “But those games take significantly longer to learn to play and appeal to a considerably narrower subset of the overall population, especially older consumers. In our experience, ‘casual’ video games are ideal both in terms of their accessibility and ease of understanding and because they appeal to nearly everyone.”

Download ECU’s full PopCap games study results here.

Note: although PopCap games were used as test examples in this study, they did not underwrite the study, and remain completely independent of its results.