http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1742
Most people usually tend to focus on the relationship between violence in children and how much they are exposed to violent video games. However, there are also other effects that tend to be neglected in this area of study. In the following study, Akio Mori, a professor at Tokyo's Nihon University, went out in search of these alternate effects. What he found was some rather stunning evidence. He found that beta wave activity in intense violent video gamers was always very close to zero, while those who didn't play violent videogames much. This was also true when they weren't playing, which shows the lack of usage of their prefrontal regions of their brain. Mori says that these two effects are important because the aggressive behavior in children might be stemming from these stimuli. Also, the continued decrease of beta waves after playing the game showed that the effect lasted longer than previously thought. Mori says that this lack of usage of some parts of their prefrontal regions is dubbed as "video-game brain." Really intense gamers become chronically neglected and thus able to alter a person's mood.
I found this exceptionally interesting as I used to be one of those "video-game brains." The article brings up some very thought provoking questions and possible answers to these questions. However, it also created a lot of uncertainty as to where the relationship between violent video games and violence in children really is. This damage to a young brain, or older brain for that matter, could be quite damaging. We know that there is evidence to prove that as a person ages, their processing of information slows down as well as their ability to recall previously learned information. Out of pure speculation from myself, is it possible that this lasting effect on the frontal regions could influence the speed at which their brain ages? Who knows the danger that we could be exposing ourselves to if that would be the case. What we do know is that there are other effects that violent videogames have on kids and that more research needs to be put into these effects to try to find out the whole story behind this fascinating phenomenon.
Leave a comment