IP Democracy: Violent Video Games Affect the Brain...Duh

The perennial quest to find a link between violent video games and violent behavior continues — researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a study that found violent video games stir up emotions while decreasing self-control.

Dr. Vincent Mathews, professor of radiology at the school, headed up the research, which randomly assigned 44 adolescents to play either violent or non-violent video games. All the while the teens were hooked up to MRI machines that scanned their brains to track the regions of activity. Kids playing violent games experienced increased activity in their amygdalas, their centers of emotion, and decreased activity in their prefrontal brain areas, which are the seats of inhibition, concentration and self-control.

“After playing a violent video game, these adolescents had an increased activity in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal,” Mathews said. “At the same time, they had decreases in activity in parts of the brain which are involved in self-control,” he added.

But, and here I take issue, Matthews and other researchers say that this is evidence that violent video games lead to “aggressive and negative behavior” and warn parents to monitor their childrens’ violent video game playing. Hmmm….of course kids are going to let go of self-control when playing, say, “Mortal Combat,” because the game calls for behavior not acceptable in the real world.

On the occasions where I’ve tested out these kinds of games, I myself have had to overcome my innate squeamishness (i.e. let go of self-control) in order to kill somebody or run a person over with a car, and believe me, I’m emotionally aroused when forced to do these things. However, I would no more engage in these kinds of behaviors in the real world than I would sprout wings and fly around above cities.

I’d say that despite the conclusions drawn by the researchers regarding the link between brain activity and behavior, the jury is still out. Sometimes what happens in the brain stays in the brain.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 29, 2006 10:02 AM to IP Democracy