One week playing violent video games alters brain activity
Baku, February 3 (AZERTAC). Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of media violence for more than a decade. Now, for the first time, they are showing that violent video games directly alter brain activity--not after years of play, but after one week.
A random sample of young men exhibited less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games.
It must be noted that the researchers, who presented their findings at this week's Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago, studied only 28 young men, ages 18 to 29. In other words, these findings are preliminary at best.
Still, the small study shows a direct relationship between playing violent video games and exhibiting less activity in frontal brain regions associated with emotional control and cognitive function.
The researchers studied a healthy group of 28 22 18- to 29-year-old men with low previous exposure to violent video games, randomly splitting them into two groups of 14.
It is that when it comes to the effects of violent media on our brains, the jury is still out.
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