Study: Violent videogames destroy brain function

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New study claims that violent videogames damage human brain function. Credit: FOX.
By Stevie Smith Dec 27, 2007, 9:57 GMT




Vilified through selective journalism as the trendy thing for society to fear, videogames have also been labelled as bearing contributory responsibility in rising instances of childhood obesity and violent crime. And now, according to a new study carried out in Taipei, gaming can seriously damage the human brain. Excellent news.


The study, which was published yesterday, claims that videogame fans investing significant amounts of time into their favourite electronic pastime – specifically through violent titles – are risking deterioration in brain function as well as vital controls connected to learning and emotion.

Conducted by Dr. Chou Yuan-hua of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry, the study used 30 volunteer subjects (all aged 25), who were subjected to a variety of examinations monitoring alterations to blood circulation in their brains before and after 30 minutes of videogame play.

The study’s results revealed that playing videogames does lead to reduced blood flow through the brain, with the reduction arriving as more evident in those test subjects who were playing videogames with violent content.

Dr. Chou explained in a Taipei Times report that many avid gamers spend much more than 30 minutes per day immersed in videogames and, by doing so, are risking damage to the brain’s frontal lobe and the anterior cingulated gyrus. In layman’s terms, the former is associated with speech, thought, decisions, and impulse, while the latter governs emotional response.

Although the findings offer no concrete conclusions as to the actual long-term effects of blood loss to the brain in relation to videogame use, Chou notes that patients with schizophrenia or depression have reduced blood flow in the same areas of the brain affected during the study. The report also outlines that damage to the cerebral cortex’s frontal lobe can lead to unusual mood swings as well as variations in social behaviour and personality.



http://gaming.monstersandcritics.com/ps ... n_function

d'oh!

pretty damn soon this'll be posted all over conservapedia as gospel truth.

That's a load of rubbish.

Interesting, but I'd like to know some variables - for instance, if you keep up communication with others while playing (say, at a LAN party) does this mitigate the effect? How much is a significant amount? As they also said, there's no indicator of long term effects (how can no evidence of long term effects be "destroying," anyone?) so this might just be a side effect of the focus that many FPS shooters require. I mean, when you use an area of the brain, blood flow increases to there, it stands to reason that if you're using certain areas at near capacity, other areas will suffer. That doesn't make it permanent.

Still, it's interesting stuff. I'd like to see more study - just because I'd rather it wasn't so, doesn't mean this study is untrue, but I'd like more information and more variables taken into account.

When your playing video games, you're usually sitting in one place and not doing anything. I wonder if that might have something to do with blood flow decreasing.

A good control for this study would be to have someone just sitting in a room staring at the wall for a few hours.

its rediculous and why no sane person would believe a study like this is because whats the difference between watching a violent movie or tv show and play a violent game?

If you're playing a violent game you're watchin an interacting

If you're watching a violent show or movie your just watching

there is no way logically you would get dumber from just sitting around watching then you would from actual problem solving and doing interactions it makes no sense whasoever

basically if you get dumb from playin a violent video game you be 100 times stupider from just watching tv or reading a book if you look cuz ur doing less then playing a video game

I wouldn't have believed the study but the photo makes complete sense and is a compelling piece of evidence.

It rather is, isn't it?

TV is more passive than video games are; this is why I will dismiss this study.

Do we also need to debate whether erotic videos actually make some people aroused?

Video games reinforce whatever behaviors are needed to succeed in the game.

lo lollololloololololollolollo u know..drinking beer may cause drunk