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

Re:I can hear the conservatives already...

[Stargoat]

Funny. Most liberals would call Jack Thompson a conservative freak. After all, it is the conservatives that like to snoop on Americans and restrict their rights. Won't anybody think of the children?

Liberals?

[Telepathetic Man]

To claim that liberals are able to do much anything in American federal government is to have blinders on. State government on the other hand, it seems to be both Republican and Democrat controlled offices that are pushing for video game censorship.

In short, to claim censorship as a left or right issue is short sighted. Any kind of censorship should be held as politically bad move by the citizens in all aspects, except when it comes to under age children.

In Soviet Russia...

[MrTester]

In Soviet Russia mirror neurons fire you. Aw hell. Ive obviously been following slashdot too long....