Videogames Affect Your Brain

ozmm writes "A story on GameSpot explains the concept of 'mirror neurons.' When we shoot a gun, certain neurons fire in our brain. When we see someone else shoot a gun, even a video game character, the exact same neurons fire. How do virtual reactions affect our lives and thoughts? This short but sweet article touches on all of this and more." From the article: "We can tell if someone is watching a television by the way that person is facing it--even if we can't see or hear if the television is even on. It also means that we can experience the mental states associated with actions without ever having to perform those actions. In video games, in particular, it's like we're automatically empathizing with what is happening on the screen as if we were the video game characters ourselves. If you've ever had a particularly heart-palpitating race in Burnout, surely you can relate."

Comments

Brainwaves

[steveo777]

A long time ago, I read about a study that showed brainwave patterns for watching normal TV (non-interactive, like soap operas and commercials) was the same as staring at a fire. These brainwaves were pretty close to that of time periods of sleep when the brain is only running the body on survival. The only difference was when something on the TV was thought-provocing.

At least when we fire a gun in a video game we have some thought pattern. I'd like to see this study done on people grinding levels in WoW or another MMORPG. I know my brain isn't waving when I'm grinding. Kill... grab stuff... skin... grab stuff... heal... kill.. ...