One in 50 children are said to suffer from amblyopia or lazy eye.

The small study of 18 adults was carried out by a group of researchers from Montreal, with results published in journal Current Biology. Half the participants in the study wore a pair of specialised ‘video goggles’ that forced both eyes to work in unison while playing Tetris by having each eye focus on a different section of the screen.

Another group also wore adapted goggles but played with their good eye patched and only the lazy eye working. Covering the good eye in this way is a common method of treating amblyopia.

After two weeks, it was shown that the group without patching saw more significant improvements in their vision than the group with the eye patches.

Dr Robert Hess, who led the research, believes that lazy eye is a problem that affects both eyes, and patching the good eye to improve the lazy one may ultimately be detrimental to both. The Tetris method could help the lazy eye ‘relearn’ how to see in the same way as the good one by encouraging both eyes to operate as an equal pair.

According to Tess, "when we get the two eyes working together, we find the vision improves. It's much better than patching, much more enjoyable, it's faster and it seems to work better." The researchers believe that many games could be used to achieve similar results, not just Tetris.

Further studies on the use of video games as a treatment for lazy eye are ongoing in the UK.