Are video games good for you.

Can you save the world by zapping the bad guys in your favorite video game? Probably not. But a recent study suggests that playing action video games may improve your visual skills and can actually "sharpen the mind."

Frequent gamers learn to process visual information more quickly, says Daphne Bavelier, a University of Rochester professor who led the study. She believes that some games might help rehabilitate stroke victims and people with impaired (damaged) eyesight.

"It is certainly good training for people in situations where they need to detect things in their visual environment at any time, in any location," she says, "like ground troops going through uncharted territory."

As part of the study, researchers tested the visual skills of several volunteers. They then trained the individuals on the military game Medal of Honor. The training, it was found, increased the players' ability to detect (spot) objects on screen.

But not everyone agrees that playing video games is good for you.

"The risk of the games," one parent told The New York Times, "is that they are so compelling that a child ... might fail to play in other ways and fall behind in the [development] of other kinds of skills."

What do you think? Will video games make you smarter--or turn you into a couch potato?