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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."
...Jack Thompson orgasms.
The science behind mirror neuron study is advancing an understanding of how humans and animals learn complex tasks. Ramachandran talks about the intelligence of the octopus in learning to open jars from watching another. The mirror neuron firing is intense and highly measurable in this species.
Sigs cause cancer.
After playing Mario 64 for 11 hours I totally empathized with the headache resulting from Mario's brick breaking antics.
When we see someone else shoot a gun, even a video game character, the exact same neurons fire.
So that makes watching a movie different from playing a game... how?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I have had some particularly exciting races in Burnout to Burnout:Revenge. I can conclusively say that I'm *not* experiencing what the videogame character would feel (pure terror followed by death and dismemberment) but rather excitment.
Also I've fired a gun, and I've played Quake. I get two very different feelings from both. Perhaps their test subjects weren't "used" to gaming and thus less able to separate the fantasy from the reality?
Rampant speculation? Check.
Pseudoscientific Terms? Check.
Pictures of Latest Games? Check.
Complete Lack Of Hard Data Whatsoever? Check.
Congradulations audience. YHJBT.
May the Maths Be with you!
I myself have a really bad case of ADHD. before i was diagnosed to have ADHD I used to play videogames for about 3 to 5 hours a day. This actually helped me build up concentration and teach me to focuss due to the postive (1 up) and negative (game over) feedback that the games gave me.
This is the same concept that modern neurofeedback treatment uses.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
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.. ...
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Of COURSE videogames affect your brain. During the Tetris craze of the late 80's I would not only DREAM Tetris, I would DAY dream Tetris. I distinctly recall sitting in various highschool classes, staring up at the ceiling, and "playing" Tetris with the drop-ceiling tiles!
And, yes, before anyone asks, I DID have the high-score.
Igi
Utter garbage! Playing Doom for 9 hours a day all of the last 12 years hasn't had any effect on me! ....Oohh, someones at my door. Sorry people - I gotta go get my chainsaw. ...Hmm...looks like I need a bigger freezer too...ho hum...
"...So I hung back and lurked. For 18 months. Can't beat a good old-fashioned lurking."
Attacks on our freedom have their genesis on both sides of the aisle.
Sigs cause cancer.
Won't anybody think of the children?
Do you mean the children Tipper Gore was seeking to protect with the PMRC? The children that Bill Clinton was protecting backing the V-chip? The children that Democrat senators are protecting by introducing anti-video game legislation?
Don't think that conservatives have a strangle hold on snooping on Americans and restricting rights.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Keep your eyes open. Today yes, the very conservative republican party is still in charge. But they are expected to lose a lot of seats in the 2k6 elections. And given her most recent posturing, Mrs. Clinton could be setting herself up for a run for president in 2k8.
I'm not claiming to be for or against either side. But theoretically atleast, a political conservative (not a moral conservative) would be against the introduction of new censorship laws. What I'm most affraid of is morally conservative liberals. People who have very set morals and no problem trying to legislate other people to be like them.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
"Videogames Affect Your Brain"
Unless you're already brain dead, doesn't every stimulus affect your brain in some way?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Bush Clinton Clinton Bush Bush Clinton Clinton...
:(
Hehe... It would be a good span. At least easy to remember.
I can definatly agree at least in "feeling". Saw a cop shoot at a woman who was trying to run him down with her car the other day. I kept thinking through what I would have done if I'd had my 9mm ruger with me that afternoon. Although, I must say, that I think I wouldn't have missed as badly as he did.
-=fshalor
While they talk about mirror neurons and super mirror neurons, it's telling that they use "a particularly heart-palpitating race in Burnout" as their example.
What's going on in Burnout isn't just neurons firing, you've also got hormones pumping.
Hormones are the reason that simulators are only so effective. When I skid out on ice during a driving game, I don't panic and think "Oh SHIT! I'm gonna die." In real life, even if I don't get hit with a flood of chemicals at the moment I fucked up, afterwards, my body & brain will practically be awash with them.
Simulations & games don't have real consequences and for the most part, your brain and body knows the difference.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Will people who played pac man, enjoy dark places with blinking colors while hearing buzz music and eating pills. Oh wait...
Léa Gris
I do research on mirror neurons... I work with Marco Iacoboni who is quoted in the article. I also play WoW.
One question that is not yet answered is just how realistic a computer generated movement has to be to engage the mirror neuron system, and what properties of the movement our motor neurons really pay attention to. Much of the research on mirror neurons focuses on reaching and grasping movements (since these are important to monkeys where the data were first recorded). Those kinds of things tend to be pretty poorly implemented in computer games in my experience, while gross movements like walking and running seem pretty convincing.
It would be an interesting study to compare mirror neuron activity while watching live actors to watching computer generated avatars. You would probably get more activity in gamers who are familiar with the virtual movements.
That being said, he used to eat, sleep and breathe Evercrack. Now he eats, sleeps and breathes WoW. He takes (what we mockingly refer to as) guild calls at ork. He spends most of his day posting on WoW message boards. He shows up late every morning because he doesn't go to bed until two hours before he has to be here. He goes home at lunch every day and comes back a minimum of fifteen minutes late, because he doesn't eat his lunch at home, he logs in and 'games' (and brings his lunch back here to eat at his desk). Oh, and he leaves early to make up for coming in late.
So, to answer your question...if a slug can figure it out, why not a higher lifeform like an octopus?
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Sig nor
I served in the Marine Corps reserve as a squad leader in a LAR company (Charlie Co., 4th LAR, 4th MARDIV, 1994-2002). I have trained in every skill the LAR scouts are tested on. I have worked with miles gear, planned and led training in combat, security and recon patrols in the mountains, in urban and desert environments; I have called for fire for mortar, artillery and air strikes. All in training. I have also played FPS games and let me tell you, nothing about it is the same. Throw on a flak vest, kevlar and 30-60 lbs. of gear, ammo and food, then lead your fellow Marines into 90+ degree weather on a 2000 meter patrol route through mountainous terrain, culminating in a full-on assault on a motorized pop-up target range. In gas masks. And that's just training. Never been to combat, myself. Tell me, which part of that is similar to sitting on your lazy butt in your living room, waggling your fingers and thumbs? None of it? Good Answer!! There are so many elements to armed combat that lead up to the possibility of pulling the trigger that comparing the two seems ludricrous to me. If videogames were anything like the real thing then in an FPS you would only be shooting a minute or two out of every hour. When your FPS game comes with 120 lbs of gear, a couple of cases of ammo, a rifle, some uniforms and five months of military, physical and combat training, then you can start making comparisons. Or you could simply join the Marines. If you could hack it. Maybe, on 2nd thought, you are better off in your living room.
so _you_ where the one with the highscore in ceiling tile tetris. I spent years trying to beat you!
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Where are you getting these definitions?
Scientists have also linked mirror neurons to autism. It has been suggested that in the autistic brain, mirror neurons are either absent or in short supply. Mirror neurons fire off a signal whenever we see another person exhibiting any signs of emotion or stress, so it makes sense that they would fire off whenever we see a character doing something we would consider stressful. It's part of what helps us be part of a larger community of empathic beings. This explains why mirror neurons are linked to autism: Autistic people often have great difficulty understanding the emotions and motives of others, and thus seem entirely alien and separate to most non-autistic people. It also explains why some people cried when Aeris died :)
I am scientifically inaccurate.