Video games are helping UVic researchers uncover secrets of the right brain. In what is being hailed as a major breakthrough, a team of UVic neuroscientists have developed a new device to show how different parts of the right brain interact while processing spatial relationships.

The device is called a MOST-EEG, or a Multiple Origin Spatio Tempral Electroencephalography, which records the electric activity of a person’s brain while they play video games.

From this, a 3D image of the brain is produced, as well as information about what parts of the brain were stimulated at what point. This helps the researchers understand how the brain navigates space, and how we remember our surroundings.

They have discovered that, during the navigation process, there is predominant activity in the right brain, as well as interaction with the left.

The discovery could also provide more insight into treating traumatic brain injuries.

“The research tells us the bits of the brain that should be working, but are not,” said Dr. Ron Skelton, one of the researchers in the project.

With this technology at the forefront, Phillip Zeman, head of the project, has started a company called Applied Brain and Vision Sciences.

The company is still in the process of finding clients and funding, but Zeman said he believes this technology could revolutionize the way that researchers test drugs, as well as offer a clearer picture of what those drugs do to our brain.

“This will make the development of pharmaceuticals potentially much quicker, because you will have feedback about what that drug does to the brain in two years instead of 10,” said Zeman.

The new technology could also help discover new uses for existing drugs, he said.

“There is this drug developed in Eastern Europe called Dimebon — it was created to combat Alzheimers, but they realized it has a positive effect in people living with dementia” said Zeman. “Maybe if they used technology like the MOST-EGG, it is possible they could have known 20 years ago that this drug has an effect on the brain function of people living with dementia.”

Skelton believes that the technology is likely to come under some scrutiny before becoming widespread, but says that in the end there is no denying its power, and the place it may hold in our future.