JMIR Serious Games

Exergaming, which combines physical activity with interactive gaming, has been shown to improve motor skills and fitness. However, exergaming’s potential in complex, open-skill sports such as tennis, which require real-time coordination, decision-making, and technical precision, remains underexplored. Furthermore, only a few studies have evaluated the impact of exergaming on both technical skill development and psychological outcomes such as motivation and confidence, especially among novice players. This study addresses these gaps by comparing the combination of exergame-based tennis training and on-court tennis training (EBTT+OCTT) with on-court tennis training alone (OCTT×2) in improving technical skills, grip strength, confidence, and motivation.

Educators are exploring new methods to educate beyond the classroom as global concerns about students’ cognitive, emotional, and social well-being grow. Physical education (PE) has been demonstrated to boost cognitive and psychological outcomes in several studies. Most research has neglected the benefits of gamification and artificial intelligence (AI)–based feedback in PE, focusing instead on conventional PE formats. The impacts of technologically enhanced PE settings on students’ cognitive performance through feedback and reward mechanisms remain understudied.

In the context of global aging, cognitive decline among older adults has become a prevalent issue, significantly impacting their daily lives. Serious games have demonstrated potential in enhancing cognitive abilities in this population. However, most existing serious games designed for older adults rely heavily on visual interfaces, which are often potentially detrimental for those with pre-existing visual impairments.

Serious games offer promising avenues for clinical care by enhancing patient engagement and delivering therapeutic benefits. In Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA), chronic pain contributes to emotional distress, functional limitations, and reduced well-being. While symptom-tracking apps exist, few digital interventions directly address chronic pain through engaging, therapeutic experiences tailored to patients’ cognitive and physical needs.

Longer life expectancy makes physical exercise crucial for active aging, however, adherence to traditional exercise among community-dwelling older adults is generally low. Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) Tai Chi exergames show significant potential as novel health promotion tools, particularly for older adults exercising in a home setting. While promising, usability and safety issues such as cybersickness are significant barriers that must be addressed before these technologies can be widely implemented for unsupervised home use.

Music education is central to holistic child development; yet, traditional piano instruction in China often emphasizes rote memorization at the expense of meaningful understanding. Elementary school pupils, particularly novices, frequently struggle with rhythm, melody, and music theory. Game-based learning (GBL), which applies game elements to teaching, may address these challenges by enhancing engagement, providing immediate feedback, and fostering long-term learning.

This Research Letter presents the conceptualization, design, and technical evaluation of the RedMan-GreenMan game co-developed with carers, aimed to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (hereafter autism) acquire pedestrian safety skills. While the system has been implemented and is in active use, no empirical evaluation of learning outcomes or behavioural impact has been conducted to date. The focus of this work is on system development, functionality and technical evaluation.

Augmented reality (AR) head mounted displays (HMDs) could overcome the spatial dissociation between medical imaging and the surgical field, which may be particularly important in anatomically dense regions such as the head and neck. Although many HMDs offer markerless inside-out tracking at a fraction of the cost of navigation systems, their overlay accuracy with superimposition (SI) modality onto the surgical field remains limited. The virtual twin (VT), displaying holography adjacent to the surgical field, may offer a viable alternative. However, its performance is still unclear.

The digital therapy of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on a “self-adaptive multitasking training paradigm” has been developed to improve the cognitive functional impairments and attention deficits of children with ADHD. However, the efficacy and safety of such treatment for Chinese patients remain untested.

Memory suppression transiently disrupts hippocampal activity, leading to suppression-induced forgetting (SIF), especially for negative stimuli. However, traditional paradigms like Think/No-Think rely on explicit control and lack ecological validity. This study introduces a game-based task that implicitly elicits suppression through reversed motor mappings, providing a naturalistic approach to studying memory inhibition.

Unrelenting pressure and an “always-on” culture can leave no time for genuine rest among young adults. While playing video games has been noted to afford cognitive escapism and relaxation, critical questions remain about the influence of popular video games, such as Super Mario Bros., and their potential effects on young adults’ burnout risk.

Amblyopia, a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, often remains inadequately addressed by traditional treatment methods such as refractive correction and occlusion therapy, which can be non-interactive and lead to poor adherence.