Frequent gamers have different brains - Study

if you think this article isn't against gamers, read it again. now we are being compared to drug addicts and compulsive gamblers. D:

I knew games were making me smarter. Get it? I used the content of my comment to contradict the image it'll give people so it's almost funny (it's a stupid comment talking about me getting smarter). P.S. The murder was intended.

Maybe they they do, maybe they don't-either way this study was a waste of time.

"tend to have larger, more productive region associated with rewarding sensations" That's what she said.

and by the way Games develope patience cuz you have to wait until the game is released then wait again until it's delivered and wait again cuz there is another game to be released .............Patience is a virtue

a research on the Internet says "don't ever do any researches on Gamers cuz they are awesome ...PS:stop this s**t and try some COD,AC or WOW and you will definitely feel better Mr.scientist"

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Nice to see a study that's not out to prove that gaming is linked to satanic rituals and killing babies in their sleep. Interesting results, though I don't think they have the definition of 'frequent gamer' quite right.

Wow...they pretty much nailed me. I love video games. I also love gambling and am addicted to drinking and greens.

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so thats why i scared my kitten when i got a good amount of kills on cod and BF3

@zidan4000 I agree with you. I even spent more than 10 hours a day on holiday to play games. But I think it's just too extreme I should lessen it a bit. Good study though that it's not really against gaming.

More or less then nine hours of gaming a week makes you a "frequent or non-frequent gamer?" There are a massive amount of idiots that play games. XBOX Live and the PSN prove this. Gaming may channel a higher level of activity from your brain when compared to someone who doesn't game and is lazy. I spend roughly 20+ a week gaming, but I also go to work, go biking, work out, paint/draw, and read. Let's strap something to my head for a day and see how my brain looks. Gaming is an addiction, so I agree that this study shares similarities with gambling.

http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v1/n11/fig_tab/tp201153f1.html#figure-title for those people who want to see the picture

@vallan2 @Hamza141 "The study also indicates that although the concept of pathological gaming was not considered, volumetric differences in the ventral striatum have previously been linked to other pathological activities, such as drug addiction and gambling." This study isn't pro-gaming (though it isn't anti-gaming, either). That said, its findings - despite the ridiculously small sample size - can be misused by media watchdog groups as evidence that gaming breeds addiction.

Well, thanks for finding out that, despite what parents/politicians/society in general thinks, videogames can be good for your brain! Now, back to Skyrim.

Doesn't this basically mean gamers always have a greater sense of smug satisfaction by completing the most benign of tasks? ...Hell yes it does! I'm going to +1 myself for the thrill! BOOYA!

finally a study wich is not against gaming

@syam32245340 what do these doctors know? if i played less than 2 hours (a day) at least, i can't consider myself that i played anything, i don't play much games in school days anyway but in the summer it can get up to 70 hours per week.

I guess they should start studying the entire WoW playerbase

I don't consider people playing social games on fb as gamers ... frequent or not. No self-respecting gamer plays less than a couple hour of gaming per day. I fail to understand the purpose of the study... they don't know why or how the ventral striatal volume increased.. but they just know it's larger.... congrats? Frequent gamers show more more brain activity when losing.. that's called learning from experience? Frequent gamers obviously played a lot more games, experienced a lot more losing/game over... so when we lose, we'll be searching on our past experience to win... more memory access... There, study completed... now hand me my PHD and can someone hook me up with a research grant or something?

so there saying it can rot our brains lol kidding not true. but im a frequent gamer ah over 30 hours a week .but is this a good or bad.

This study should have studied Demon's or Dark Souls. THAT type of game really tests you and messes with your brain chemistry, I felt like I'd conquered the world after beating Demon's Souls. Then again that game may have broken the MRI machines. :O And this study is spot on - any gamer who ever was seriously hooked on an MMO in high school (IE formative years) probably was never quite the same afterwards in terms of what they enjoy / get pleasure from. At least I can testify to that.

Frequent gamers play only 9 hours a week?

Most of the games released recently are easy so Im not surprised the part of their brain that makes them feel like theyve accomplished something would be larger.

@B4NTH4F0DD3R If he said extenZe cures cancer, then it must be true.

@Thatsmypunk Although Kevin Trudeau would say that there is :P

Really, frequent gamers' brains reward center is larger then non-frequent gamers. Does it really take a study to figure this out. Have any of these scientists ever played Call of Duty? Ever notice that when you get so many kills, YOU LEVEL UP, and it shows up in big bold animations on your screen!

And there is still no cure for cancer.

@Megavideogamer To answer your answer yes it can be... It seems to cause physical changes in the brain so its possible. Of course this research is just in infant stages it has a long ways to go. I know back in April of 2010 I competed in an online game tournament for 1 month(hardcore gaming minimum of 4 hours a day) and it ****ed me up thats a mistake I dont plan on doing again. I won but it was a terrible idea. If you dont believe me look up the Warhawk CTF tournament winners.

...so this is why a lot of games are extremely full of themselves when they get a kill... (which includes me sometimes lol)

What if they were taking drugs WHILE they were playing games? How do you explain that if you please?

When I try to look at the most interesting thing in the article (the image) I get a 404 -_-

I like to think we have ones that could serve as a final boss if removed and placed in a glass case.

@Megavideogamer The official term is Problematic (or Pathological) Usage, and diagnosis is not based on time, but rather symptoms. There is an adverse reaction on the part of most biopsychologists to call it addiction, however, in answer to your other questions, yes, there are withdrawal symptoms. In fact, all 7 of the DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence can be found in individuals with Video Game Problematic Usage. Further, research shows that behavioral 'addictions' often have the same brain correlates as substance addictions (as seen above). Both drugs and behaviors act on the same neurotransmitters, drugs just do it faster and harder. Tolerance and withdrawal are actually triggered by conditioning, which has to do with these neurotransmitters. As a result, it is easier to become addicted to drugs, however, in the long term, a behavior can result in just as strong if not stronger effects. There is a much longer explanation of this, but unfortunately I have limited space.

@vengefulwilberg, statistics do not lie. People, however, often lie using statistics.

More or less than 9 hours in a week... I'm at the pc for about 11~12 hours a day, in the weekends even more. I think I might have a problem.

Can Videogames be a real addiction? Heroin is a "True" addiction since it is actually physical addictive to mind and body. Playing Videogames even if you play more than 9 hours a week, Is not a "real" addiction? or is now just a "Pathological disorder"? Can people go through Halo withdrawls? Heroin is obvious addictive neurotoxic narcotic substance. But Videogames?

What is this! Did someone accidentally get some half reasonable science mixed in with my horrible, terrible, american value destroying, news and ignorant hysteria inspiring video game science studies! GASP!

@Strippin_Heat The study, as reported here, doesn't point out either, instead it states that a causal relationship is undetermined. It could be gaming causes the increase in volume of the left ventral striatum, or it could be that those with larger left ventral striatum's are more likely to be frequent gamers.

Statistics is so overrated. You can't always believe what you hear.

@mjc0961 It's hard for you to look at it from the outside and decide what is a relevant sample size, or a statistically relevant result. Also, one word might bring to mind why the study ended up as it did: funding. Plus, you do know the majority of psychology studies are done on university students? This bears as much merit as most of those do.

Don't mention drug addiction! Politicians will purposefully reinterpret that to mean gamers are more likely to be drug addicts or some crap!

@-Saigo- Lol, my bad. Didn't even see that. :/

@-Saigo- lol I signed in to tell him the exact same thing looks like you got it covered. I'm all for research concerning the brain no matter what the subject is. We know for to little about it as it is.

"The study was conducted with a pool of 154 healthy 14-year-old teens from Berlin divided into groups of frequent (76) and non-frequent (78) gamers." So, in other words, another completely worthless study that doesn't show any worthwhile data because the sample size is way too small.

@Xeogua -- Read the 2nd to last paragraph.

@jasonzilla11 They are talking about an abnormality. Everyone does have different brains but the study found that people who play a lot of games have this center developed more than people who game very little. This is an interesting and very legit look into the way games effect us. I wish there would be more stuff like this on GS. Psychology is a very interesting subject I actually intend to minor in it in college and get a Bachelors later so I can work in mental health hospitals. Just a side note... :P Oh BTW anyone can be a test subject for anything and these people gave their consent so yeah.

@Bboyjhin 9x7=63...

It's funny how defensive we gamers get. This study sounds like good science, they don't claim anything beyond reporting their findings; they simply say they found a correlation in their test group, and admit that the causality could go either way. Our interactions with the world DO change our brains, especially children's as they form. It's extremely valuable for scientists to study this and learn more about how the brain works.