Scientist finds hardcore gamers have larger brain pleasure centers than casual gamers.
Regardless of how people feel about excessive video gaming, the truth is there is still much to learn about the causes and consequences of hardcore gaming. Some research suggests gaming can be healthy while others say it can be detrimental.
In this particular study conducted by Dr. Simone Kühn of Charité University of Medicine in Berlin, researchers found that teenagers who play video games frequently tend to have brains with larger pleasure centers.
The study involved looking at a group of 154 Berlin school children who were all 14-years-old and played video games. The researchers first divided the students into two groups: the 'average' gamer who played video games for about four hours a week, and 'frequent' gamers who played for about 21 hours a week.
The researchers then conducted MRI scans on all of the test subjects and found that the frequent gamer group had more grey matter (nerve cell bodies) in a region of the brain called the 'ventral striatum'. Although white matter (connections between nerves) levels were similar between the two groups, the results indicated that the frequent gamers had a larger 'ventral striatum' than the casual gamers.
"The ventral striatum is usually associated with everything that brings pleasure", Kühn explained. "For instance food and monetary reward. It's also been associated with some addictions. If you show a smoker a cigarette for example, the ventral striatum is activated." Although this doesn't conclusively suggest frequent gamers experience more pleasure than others, the study definitely reveals an interesting correlation.
The researchers say the study doesn't determine whether the larger pleasure centers are a result of frequent gaming or a cause of frequent gaming. At this point it looks like more research will have to be done in order to come up with an answer, until then all we can do is take extra pleasure in solving puzzles, defeating bosses, and pwning noobs. For more information on the research, head on over to the Translational Psychiatry journal to read the full study.
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I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but all pleasure if good pleasure...
*is
another way to interpret this: hardcore gamers are bigger addicts.
That explains my nerdgasms
Well, it's the good kind of pleasure..... and we're glad....
The researchers need to get laid....
Oh, sorry for my previous comment.
2 nerds got offended...i wasn't talking about you guys, i was talking about the researchers...lol
And this is why I've never done coke. I know that when I can get addicted to games chances are that I'll get addicted to blow if I ever tried it.
Must explain why every time i'm on the computer i end up on porn.
some people get a boner reading shakespeare. isn't it just simply that people get enjoyment out of the things they enjoy?
No! We play games because we don't like it. Playing feels bad. It makes me depressed.
/sarcasm
4h/week - average
21h/week - frequent
wait what? how about 50h+/week?
Researchers did what they wanted to do but please don't jump to conclusions over a bunch of casuals.
4h/week - average21h/week - frequentwait what? how about 50h+/week?Researchers did what they wanted to do but please don't jump to conclusions over a bunch of casuals.
4hr/week=casual
21hr/=gamer
50hr/week=hardcore gamer
and an addict does those 21 hours in one day.
Still not conclusive and further research needs to be done, but the point in case is the larger area in the brain presumably developed with a greater gaming activity that points to similarities with some addictions. Of course we all enjoy our lifestyle or hobbies but at what point anything becomes an addiction and how healthy could it be?
What is being said here is that gamers have a neurological structure which makes them more sensitive to the brains own reward mechanism. As any current / former addict will know, this reward mechanism runs on such yummy, yummy chemicals as seritonin, oxytocin and dopamine. The implication being that gamers have more addictive personalities. The researchers are also careful to point out that this implication is only an implication and that they cannot say whether gaming makes someone more susceptible to addiction (can you imagine moral outrage) or whether gaming attracts people who already have a predisposition to addiction.
Now, I personally, being a hardcore gamer, a former drug addict and from what I understand about the remarkable plasticity of the human brain, think that it's probably both. Despite it's seemingly mainstream acceptance I think that we have a long way before gaming will have mainstream cultural legitimacy. I predict another generation or two when all those baby boomers are dead and the people who have grown up with gaming all their lives are retiring.
Gaming addiction isn't even officially recognised in The American Psychiatric Association's current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV.) These people have obviously never even read about the phenomenon of WOW and it's players, let alone met one or (god forbid) played themselves.
P.S. I've never played WOW by the way, I know my weaknesses.
Or, in shorter words, "People enjoy playing games."
Dopamine makes you happy, shocker!
4hr/week=casual21hr/=gamer50hr/week=hardcore gamer
50hours/week = unemployed
21hours/week is hardcore enough, thats 3 hours EVERYDAY of the week and you still have to sleep, work and take care of the house.
Drutski
Excellent contribution, I just want say gamers "don't have" the bigger the neurological structure for the reward mechanism but instead they "presumably" develop the bigger structure with the "prolonged" gaming activity. The bigger structure in the brain is a result or the plasticity of the brain, like a muscle.
WyomingKnott
"Or, in shorter words, "People enjoy playing games."
That is not it. We all enjoy our recreational activities and that is already a known fact and not in question.
50hours/week = unemployed21hours/week is hardcore enough, thats 3 hours EVERYDAY of the week and you still have to sleep, work and take care of the house.
hardcore gamers don't sleep, sometimes they do work, and they don't take care of the house... I know i was one before...
Research finds link between women and dick pleasure.
hardcore gamers don't sleep, sometimes they do work, and they don't take care of the house... I know i was one before...
I played years of CS/CSS league and I never found a way to get the house to clean itself? I even tried to train the cat but to no avail. Damn animal doesnt want to work for its food it seems.
Im still colonel 2 in BF3 with my meagre 20-30 hours/w.
I think that the moment you have a chat-box facility in a game, it risks going from very pleasurable to very nauseous. The focus of interests drifts away from co-operate gaming and light banter, to fierce and often threatening e-wars. Not saying this is true of all such games, but I think there is a lot to be said for having a game with minimal chat-box interaction (such as Left 4 Dead 2 where you don't really have the time to keep chatting). When I played Grand Theft Auto online many people used to spam the chat box and argue incessantly, to the point where it no longer became a pleasurable experience.
"The researchers say the study doesn't determine whether the larger pleasure centers are a result of frequent gaming or a cause of frequent gaming."
Maybe neither.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, or measurement errors. 154 is not a large statistical sample, and many teenagers will lie when asked how much time they spend playing (and how much time they spend doing homework).
Or maybe it's a correlation. People with bigger brains may get two separate and independent consequences from this:
1) larger pleasure centers in the brain
2) better results in games, which in turn can lead to spending more time in games
"The researchers then conducted MRI scans on all of the test subjects and found that..."
This is SOOO Aperture Science! lol
"The researchers then conducted MRI scans on all of the test subjects and found that..."This is SOOO Aperture Science! lol
I just went back and re-read the article as if GLaDOS had written it. It totally fits. Just throw in some "so in conclusion, Portal 2 gamers are capable of 125% more fun." stuff at the end and you've got an ad.
ya makes sense.
no offense to toms in anyway here but file this under DUHHH. If gaming (even when it pisses you off) didnt make you feel good people wouldnt do it.
When I played through mass effect 1 and started 2 and saw the dog tags and "flashbacks" in the wreckage mission I nearly cried. A good story can suck you in and actually make you care about the characters. Plus there's always the positive emotive response you get when you bring down the big boss that was really tough and you had such a hard time getting past that when you do its not only a rush but a release as well. youve conquered the foe and you are the champion and the game lauds you for your success. Now if only we could get our bosses to act like that in real life when we file those TPS reports. yes I got the memo... no I dont need another copy of it Ive got it right here I just forgot about the new cover sheets. See that doesnt happen in games... they tell us to go defeat the dragon and they'll give us money. They dont care HOW we defeat it just that it dies. If only real life were so straight forward and uncomplicated we would all be happier.
Why else would we enjoy slaughtering the opposing team in COD4, right?