Another study compared surgeons who play video games to those who don't. Even after taking into account differences in age, years of medical training and the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed, researchers found an edge for gamer surgeons. "The single best predictor of their skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now," said Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile. "Those were better predictors of surgical skills than years of training and number of surgeries performed," Gentile said. "So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these [surgeries] have you done and the second question is, 'Are you a gamer?'"