Scientists at Indiana University (IU) believe to have delivered the first crucial piece of evidence that violent video games have, in fact, a long term impact on brain functions.
The project team supplied 28 males between the ages of 18 and 29 with laptops and instructed 14 members to play a "shooting video game" for 10 hours per day over a period of one week and refrain from playing the game in the following week. The second group of 14 people was told not to play a video game at all.
All males were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis at the beginning of the study, with follow-up exams at one and two weeks. Additionally, the scientists analyzed participant behavior with a so called emotional interference task, which included "pressing buttons according to the color of visually presented words. Words indicating violent actions were interspersed among nonviolent action words. In addition, the participants completed a cognitive inhibition counting task."
The result showed that the one week of violent video game play caused a decrease in activity in the left inferior frontal lobe and the anterior cingulate cortex during tests that evaluated the ability to control cognitive flexibility and attention. After one-week of refraining from playing the game, the changes to the brain "returned closer to the control group," the researchers said.
"These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning," said Yang Wang, assistant research professor in the IU Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences. "These effects may translate into behavioral changes over longer periods of game play." However, Wang did not say what kind of behavioral changes are to be expected and whether people who play violent video become more aggressive or violent by default.
exactly. it showed playing 10hrs a day of video games changed the brain..not necessarily it being violent.
"Wang did not say what kind of behavioral changes are to be expected"
Play video games for 10 hours per day for a week and of course brain activity will change. If that's all their experiment verified, then it's pure fail. A worthwhile experiment would have been to gather objective evidence as to what (if any) is the effect on patterns of behaviour or thoughts. You do ANY activity that intensely for a week and an MRI will reveal some kind of change. You think if you played tennis for a week they wouldn't detect anything? And as for the control group, shouldn't they play a non-violent game for the same amount of time? What if Hello Kitty Island Adventure has the same patters of brain activity changes? Can they state that they verified this is not the case?
Oh science, how I weep for you. You were ridiculed and punished for thousands of years, and now the general public accepted quasi-science in your stead. Acupuncture, homeopathic "medicine", mediums, studies that don't properly isolate the factor they're trying to test for. Will your time ever come?
exactly. it showed playing 10hrs a day of video games changed the brain..not necessarily it being violent.
Seriously though, I hope no one takes the "results" of this research and runs with it. Although, anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together can probably see that nothing will come of this. It's like, spending money and 2 weeks to say that "If you heat up metal with a blowtorch, it gets hot." What a ridiculous waste of time. What would be more informative is actually stretching this research over a longer period of time.
"Wang did not say what kind of behavioral changes are to be expected"
Play video games for 10 hours per day for a week and of course brain activity will change. If that's all their experiment verified, then it's pure fail. A worthwhile experiment would have been to gather objective evidence as to what (if any) is the effect on patterns of behaviour or thoughts. You do ANY activity that intensely for a week and an MRI will reveal some kind of change. You think if you played tennis for a week they wouldn't detect anything? And as for the control group, shouldn't they play a non-violent game for the same amount of time? What if Hello Kitty Island Adventure has the same patters of brain activity changes? Can they state that they verified this is not the case?
Oh science, how I weep for you. You were ridiculed and punished for thousands of years, and now the general public accepted quasi-science in your stead. Acupuncture, homeopathic "medicine", mediums, studies that don't properly isolate the factor they're trying to test for. Will your time ever come?
How can they determine it has a long-term effect when the researcher even states their changes returned close to the control group? It's more short term and reversible.
Also, the sample size is tiny and is not representative of the population. I think the average age of gamers is 33.
"Oh! Sticky bombs like you!"
I knew one person would recognize
in layman's term (mine, too), they GREW in their abilities
and everyone who played video games knows (including my 70 yo father) that hand-eye coordination is only one of those abilities
so yes, it changes the brain. for the better
Star Wars marathon, LotR marathon, Matrix marathon...
Make those same people play Pinata or Barbie... for that time period...
Not wasted if they can use it to fuel their propaganda machine. This "study" is a crock, plain and simple.
Doing anything for 10 hours change the brain activity, and that's what they actually found. Counting beans would most likely show even more pronounced difference.