Gamers Have Different Brains

Remember how your mother would tell you that those vidya games were going to rot your brain? According to a recent study, they might actually be making it bigger.

Psychologist Simone Kuhm of Belgium’s Ghent University and his colleagues gathered 154 14-year-old children from Berlin and had them divided into two groups. 24 girls and 52 boys were classified as ‘frequent gamers,’ meeting the criteria of playing at least nine hours of games a week.

An MRI scan showed that the frequent gamers had more gray matter in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum, which is a part of the brain that affects the interplay of emotions and behavior. According to previous research, the function of this part of the brain can effect and promote addictive behaviour.

Using fMRI scans, they also observed some changes in the children’s brains while they took part in a task that caused them to anticipate and receive an award. Interestingly, the frequent gamers had greater brain activity when they were under the impression that they were losing, which is similar to a response seen in addicted gamblers.

This study is the first to correlate changes in the brain structure with video games, according to the authors. Interestingly enough, they couldn’t figure out if gamers brains grew larger because they play video games, or if having that part of their brain enlarged in the first place is what made video games so appealing.

The good news is, however, that this study isn’t being used to try and scare us from playing games. In fact, the authors of the study think it may help us to further understand the science of addiction and what role our brains play. You can find the rest of the study here.

This leads us to ask the big question: What kind of results would they have got if these kids were playing Skyrim?

[Source: La Times]