Slashdot Mirror
Video Games Found To Decrease Brain Activity
Richard C writes "A Japanese researcher, Akio Mori, from the Nihon University's College of Humanities and Sciences, claims to have found a link between the playing of video games and the balance of activity in the brain. It is also claimed that this effect can cause behavioural changes, such as lack of concentration, difficulty with social association, and short temper. These effects are also thought to be, to some extent, nonreversible." I was gonna say something witty and insightful here, but
I can't think of anything. At least I can't make a windows machine stable
enough to run Neverwinter or my brain would be toast.
Huh?
I've forgotten what I was going to say here, as playing Neverwinter has eroded my brain.
*drool*
This make me want to smash, er, things.
and stuff
huh?
Waiting for an amusing sig.
This doesn't bode well for professional game testers. They oughta get some kind of hazard pay for their weakening intellect.
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
... might as well keep at it. I was taught never to do things half-way! Psychosis, here I come!
all along my lack of concentration, difficulty with social association, and short temper have been a result of video games! I disagree. I can play a game like counter-strike for hours at a time and never lose concentration. I type to my opponents witty remarks like "that was bs!" all the time, and receive similarly witty replies - I've made some great virtual friends through gaming. Lastly, it takes at least 3 or 4 deaths for me to get pissed that some noob/hacker killed me. This may be funny, but it's true too!
Well, I guess I'll just go back to sitting on my front porch drinking 'shine, tokin weed and sniffin' paint.
Yes, I'm an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
i have spent more hours of my life playing doom and then civilization then i care to think about but... umm... what was i writing about?
why do i even talk to you people anyway! what's the point! stop bothering me dammit! GO AWAY!
umm... err...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Well hell I could have told you that. I play them to veg out, not deal with people, and enjoy loosing my temper at something I can take it out on. I also find that I become "SuperNeck" while I play, and the Uberness follows me into the hours after I stop playing. I was wondering why when I was running around with my grill lighter, with the flame at max screaming "MAHALITO!" people looked at me funny.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Ways to capitalize on this situation:
1) Sue Squaresoft / Nintendo / ID / Insert your favorite video game manufacturer here for the pain and suffering I experienced in high school for a lack of social skills (I didn't see no warning label)!
2) Sue any employer for refusing to hire me on the grounds on a lack of social skills. I can now call it a handicap.
3) Workers Comp!
20 console systems and 100 games... for 'research': $9000
3 years salary for 10 scientists: $1,800,000
Miscellaneou research costs: $400,000
Discovering that sitting in a lab all day playing video games just might result in social issues?
Priceless.
There are some things money can't buy... For everything else; there's research grants.
You must be kidding. In fact, you just reminded me of a hilarious comic strip from the far side. I thought I'd share it with the group. Hell, with thinking like that, who needs to spend the thousands I'm spending on college, I could spend $40 on a video game!
They're just playing the wrong games. I have to use my brainpower and creativity to play my favorite game: KarmaQuest on Slashdot. If I just sit back don't think and post any microsoft rules old mpaa rocks crap lunix suxxx0rz, then I lose points.
On the other hand, if I spend some time and get creative and construct a witty, self-referential post that admits that it's there to whore karma, then I can win a lot of points.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
Video games rot your brain, and bleaching hair causes brain damage. Since today's kids love both of these, they may be so out of it by age forty that they need to be put in nursing homes!
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
At least I can't make a windows machine stable enough to run Neverwinter or my brain would be toast
Hey, Taco, get a Mac.
The only study that I will believe is one that make a positive correlation between playing video games and a decrease in one's ability to spell correctly.
This study would then be followed by one involving video games and grammar.
I think a Simpsons quote would be appropriate here:
"Damn TV. It's ruined my ability to remember what I'm just like it's..... uh.....(turn on TV to Itchy and Scratchy)... Ha ha ha ha ha"!
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Tis studie is totel BS. Prety soone thay'll sey thet reeding Slahdot causis pour speling.
would require strategic thinking, game theory, and multitasking
Damnit, my Knights keep getting suckered away from the Nash equilibirum!
dabacon
If you're smart enough to file a lawsuit, you'll lose it.
As an aside, before everyone shouts "it's a correlational study blah blah" it's worth pointing out that this study combines a within-subjects experimental manipulation (compares brain activity at rest to activity during gaming) with a correlational variable (compares the effect of the experimental manipulation between gamers and non-gamers). The experimental effect of gaming is strongest in people who game regularly, but it's there for everybody except people who never game.
Words to big. Me play quake now.
The latest study is The Truth for Today.
:)
Its worked for the war on drugs for over 70 years, may as well apply to video games as well. Interestingly, both relate to activities that old white guys don't like to admit to doing and also complain that they serve no purpose and rot the brain and so want to force everyone else to abide by their standards. With the way things relate in goofy ways, like the soda/pop/coke study with the 2000 election, I sometimes think that psychohistory is only one weird research project away.
URL/source, please?
I'm skeptical, but interested. Several of my cow orkers have commented that I have the reflexes/ability to do that "movie trick" where someone accidentally knocks an object off a desk, and the 7337 d00d manages to catch the object before it falls/spills. Just did it again this afternoon.
I'm still skeptical, because I know that "data" is not the plural of "anecdote", but your posting and this afternoon's "catch" made me realize that I didn't do this in high school. I've since been gaming for 15+ years, mostly RTS and turn-based strategy, but I've put many hours into FPSes and classic '80s "zone-out"/"get into the zone, man" games (Tempest, Robotron) too.
> > "[the researcher's study claims that too much gaming results in brainwave patterns that manifest themselves in] lack of concentration, difficulty with social association, and short temper?"
Humph! If I had friends, we'd get together and go to Japan and tell this guy to manifest his brain function with my shiny metal ass, by biting it!!
Shiny? Metal? Oooh, shiny thing! What was the plan again? Right, another round case modding for the LAN party, then s'more Counterstrike. Cool.
Don't you mean "half" your reaction time?
I guess these things happen when your beta-wave activity slows :-)
Yes, thank you
I'm glad you're here. You know, if anybody doesn't get a "subtle" joke, I'm glad you're here to RAM IT DOWN THEIR THROATS!
Since you've master those problems, here are some slightly more difficult problems for you to tackle:
2) Get laid. Get so good at it that you can walk into any social situation and walk out with someone you just met.
3) Find a person who perfectly compliments your own strengths and faults, marry them, create a strong and lasting marriage, have kids, and raise them to be excellent people.
you get the idea...
I find these games to be much more challenging and rewarding than most video games.
You mean like The Sims? I *Love* that game!
2) Get laid. Get so good at it that you can walk into any social situation and walk out with someone you just met.
3) Find a person who perfectly compliments your own strengths and faults, marry them, create a strong and lasting marriage, have kids, and raise them to be excellent people.
These should probably not be attempted simultaneously
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Hey, it really happens:
<bfinn> THE QUACK IS GAME TO PLAY TO KILL OF PEOPLE TO GUN
So, you're asking a web community filled with 20 and 30something year old virgins to get out and exercise themselves socially.
They need to take baby steps;
1) Get your face out of the bucket of KFC.
2) Take a shower
3) Change shirt you got off thinkgeek that you've been wearing for the past 3 days.
4) Get out of mom's basement
5) Walk/Jog/Run 45 minutes a day.
#5 can be a far better mental stimulant than any crappy FPS clone churned out by ID. You guys should try it; you'll thank me.
~dlb
not to mention lesdexia
fast food is turning japanese girls into sex maniacs
I always knew there was something about McDonald's that I loved. Here's to serving another 100 billion hamburgers and making the world a better place!
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division Is the page where that came from, there is a lot more information about the subject aswell.
It claims that video games can cause behavioural changes, such as lack of concentration [failing to read even the short article introduction on Slashdot], difficulty with social association [not getting any], and short temper [arguing non-objectively and in a personally attached manner as is common on Slashdot] . These effects are also thought to be, to some extent, nonreversible [continuing to not get any for the rest of your life]. It does not state that you are an idiot because you play video games.
Best Slashdot comment ever