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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.
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
Haven't there been just as many studies showing the exact *opposite*? I guess it must mean that it does nothing at all in the end, since half of the reaearch shows one way, and half the other. I think it all depends on the agenda the researchs/financers start out to prove...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
that maybe the reason that it decreases brain activity is because the brain has gotten more efficient at doing tasks?
The first thing that I would like to know is which games were played? I would expect there to be a large difference in brain wave patterns between Pong and an RTS or Strategy game, which would require strategic thinking, game theory, and multitasking. Also, it seems as if the researcher may have had a negative attitude towards video games prior to the study.
"A good conspiracy is an unprovable one." -Conspiracy Theory
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
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.
This is the second completely ludicrous science article I've read at this particular website in the last few weeks. It seems like they specialize in sensationalizing marginal psychological research results into weird moralistic conclusions. Cross reference this article about how fast food is turning japanese girls into sex maniacs:
p hs .html
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0206/020619nym
These are EEG recordings. They placed scalp electrodes on the heads of these people while playing and not playing video games. The vast majority of these signals are close to 10 Hz, as was seen in the subjects.
The differences occur in the higher frequency range. These ranges are associated with strenuous attentional focus, and were highest in normals, near zero in heavy game players.
All this is restricted to prefrontal areas, which are the highest abstractest most creative planning areas.
WAY blown out of proportion.
Some background on brain waves from EEG
Also, this is being presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference, so it is quite possible VERY preliminary.
> I've played a lot of strategy games in my life [...] these games have made me MORE intelligent by finding different solutions to different problems.
Since you've master those problems, here are some slightly more difficult problems for you to tackle:
1) Start a new company, grow it to the point where it employees hundreds of people, and go public for millions. Repeat.
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.
The training of video games does NOT necessarily translate to real life.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
You're not from America, are you?
Exactly.
There are two many medical studies that draw direct conclusions from data when often the consistant occurrance of two effects together are caused by something completely different that the researcher never thought about.
For instance, people who drink one glass of wine a day have fewer heart attacks. But, maybe the real reason is that most of those wine drinkers they STUDIED make more money, take more vitamins, and generally watch their health better. Few doctors will mention that.
They also still don't know why EXACTLY Japanese women, before they move to America, have a lower rate of breast cancer than native Americans, and the descendants of those Japanese women also have a rate of breast cancer similar to other Americans (because they are native Americans at that point). Why? Because their Japanese? Because they eat more fish and less red meat than we do?
Also, with a controversial study like this, you always have to ask, "How many people DID you study and for how many years?". That important little fact seems to be absent from this article -- I've seen too many supposedly legitimate studies over the past 10-15 years that study 50 people over 2 years and call that "conclusive research" on humans. I hate to tell any scientists out there this, but accurate human research takes DECADES on a reasonable number of people (i.e. NOT 50).
When do scientists cross the line between science and tabloid news? I think more scientists need to learn...
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.
I also wonder if there is some correlation between the intensity and/or longevity of the effects and age (I would expect that the effects are more pronounced and long-lasting in kids than adults, for instance).
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
And masturbation making you go blind, life at 60 will really bite the big one.
The lesson is point it away from your eyes when it shoots.
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.