New Research Examines Effect of Violent Games on Cognitive and Emotional Behavior
By Yannick LeJacq | December 1, 2011 | News | 1 comment | Share
A new study presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) has, for possibly the first time, indicated with quantifiable scientific evidence that playing violent video games does indeed impact the emotional and cognitive development of young men, a PR Newswire reports. The study, supported by the Center for Successful Parenting and conducted by a cohort of doctors and researchers–Tom Hummer, Ph.D., William Kronenberger, Ph.D., Kristine Mosier, D.M.D., Ph.D., and Vincent P. Mathews, M.D.–used fMRI scans to monitor activity in the subject’s brain as they were exposed to violent video games over the course of two weeks.
This study is the “first time” that research “have found that a sample of randomly assigned young adults showed less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games at home,” said Yang Wang, M.D., assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “These brain regions are important for controlling emotion and aggressive behavior.” Though the actual games played were not specified, the research states that the men were instructed to play shooters. The PR report describes the research:
For the study, 22 healthy adult males, age 18 to 29, with low past exposure to violent video games were randomly assigned to two groups of 11. Members of the first group were instructed to play a shooting video game for 10 hours at home for one week and refrain from playing the following week. The second group did not play a violent video game at all during the two-week period.
Each of the 22 men underwent fMRI at the beginning of the study, with follow-up exams at one and two weeks. During fMRI, the participants completed an emotional interference task, pressing buttons according to the color of visually presented words. Words indicating violent actions were interspersed among nonviolent action words. In addition, the participants completed a cognitive inhibition counting task.
The results showed that after one week of violent game play, the video game group members showed less activation in the left inferior frontal lobe during the emotional task and less activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during the counting task, compared to their baseline results and the results of the control group after one week. After the second week without game play, the changes to the executive regions of the brain were diminished.PR Newsire
These results are potentially damning, especially in light of the recent Supreme Court decision that declared that video games, however violent they may be, were deserving of the same free speech protections of the first amendment as any other type of popular media. While there are many steps between announcing new research and crafting an adequate cultural or political response, quantifiable research of this kind may take the wind out of the sails of videogame’s most staunch advocates for the time being. As Dr. Wang said, “these findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning.”
There are, of course, many unanswered questions and concerns with the study. The sample size of the study was relatively small and restrictive. Issues of what games were played, and how gameplay was structure and mediated for this study, remain unclear. Furthermore, it is questionable why the study chose to focus on young men when both the average of gamers and number of female players have both increased in recent years. And finally, The Center for Successful Parenting comes across as a less than neutral arbiter of such information. Consider, for example, the activist rhetoric of its mission statement:
Our culture used to protect the innocence of our children. Today our children are constantly exposed to sex and violence. Our vision is the move parents, leaders in health, government, business, education, public safety and other vocations to action by changing our culture to protect children from unhealthy media in all formats.The Center for Successful Parenting
I want to try to avoid coming across as a defensive nerd that is unwilling to hear any criticism, legitimate or not, so I’m going to leave the matter here for general consideration and discussion. We will provide any updates as they become available.
In the mean time, let us hear your thoughts on the subject.
These men haven't played violent video games before is what I'm guessing. But think about it, if someone who never drank, drunk alcohol, they'd become drunk much quicker if not immediately. So think about it, this exposure was focused and was also new towards the males... so in a way they were sensitive to the content which made them more likely to be affected. I don't know if that made any sense at all, but you know.