Slashdot Mirror
Correlation Found Between Brain Structure and Video Game Success
kghapa writes "Still want to argue that video games shrink your brain? While video games have been previously shown to stimulate brain activity and improve coordination skills, a recently published study has directly linked structures in the human brain with video game aptitude. And yes, apparently size does matter in this case. Quoting: '... each subject received 20 hours of training to play a video game specifically created for research purposes, called Space Fortress. It's basically an Asteroids-type arcade game, in which the object is to knock down and destroy an enemy fortress while dodging space mines. However, the game has lots of extra twists that require close attention. Some of the players were told to focus exclusively on running up a high score, while others were told to shift their priorities between several goals. The result? The subjects who had more volume in an area called the nucleus accumbens did significantly better in the early stages of training. Meanwhile, those who were well-endowed in different areas of the striatum, known as the caudate nucleus and putamen, handled the shifting strategies better.'"
...contributing to statistically greater success in tasks which might benefit from its function.
News at 11.
One that hath name thou can not otter
New research finds "First Posting linked to genius".
I am anarch of all I survey.
-- people are different! OMFG!
I'm waiting for the correlation between video game success and getting laid.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
When it was called Ender's Game. Did he destroy the buggers?
That corporate video game companies will hire monkeys to test video games and pay them in peanuts to save the money for their annual bonuses. Most gamers won't notice the quality difference.
"Hey baby, let me show you how well endowed my caudate nucleus is."
Obligatory PvP reference: "My brain is hung like a horse!"
(Posting anonymously...)
Asteroids-type arcade game, in which the object is to knock down and destroy an enemy fortress while dodging space mines.
It sounds more like Star Castle, which *is* an Asteroids type game, but why not just come out and say Star Castle?
Somehow, the motherboard is a significant factor. And sometimes a joystick is just a joystick.
rewriting history since 2109
Sounds good - where is the download?
The study is interesting enough, but they need to work on their visuals. The game's graphics barely compete with Stellar Fortress for the Atari 2600...
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
I thought the game sounded like fun so I looked it up. You can find it here: http://cogworks.cogsci.rpi.edu/?view=modules.research.spec&id=74 The page is down, so you may need to check the Google Cache. It does not appear to be available to the general public.
or else!
size does matter
those who were well-endowed
What an incredibly phallic story.
In other news, the area of the brain linked to violent behavior found. Subjects with larger brain structures more successful at violence, more prone to murder.
And here I thought my fast reflexes and hand-eye coordination were due to my abnormally large midi-chlorian count. With this article, I'll never convince my brother that I'm a jedi knight! Buzzkilled by science once again. "This is not the article you're looking for."
Everyone has the same hormones. If some guys want to waste theirs growing big brains, that's their business.
Have gnu, will travel.
This is fantastic information to have. You know, because of all the times in everyday life where you need to either gets lots of points or do different things rapidly. Let's see, there's sports and... sports? People good at video games are good at sports?
Uh huh. *rolls eyes*
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
What are the implications for that deaf, dumb and blind kid then?
I read that as Dwarf Fortress, not Space Fortress. Just when I thought all those hours of DF might actually mean something...
A study which actually states its correlation and not causation! With the gross misinterpretation of studies and statistics, I am surprised the headline didn't read "Study Finds Brain Structure is the Cause of Video Game Success!"
"There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
Where can I get my brain size measured, and what can I take to make it bigger! Coming soon. Enzyte for gamers.
Watch me stroll through the arcades, as I intimidate you with my BIG head!!
Team Fortress will work much better.
New Economic Perspectives
It's not clear from TFA or the abstract whether the volumes measured were absolute or in proportion to overall brain volume. A bigger brain will have bigger parts usually, but it may need them all bigger to run the thing. A smaller brain with a larger part might have more of that function than it requires, lending to greater ability. Anyone got access to the PDF to see how they define volume?
Size itself can be a contributor to greater or lesser processing according to what and where. We found that the larger the cross section of the foremost part of the corpus callosum (larger taken as a fraction of overall volume) had greater attentional abilities, particularly disattention. We also found that the smaller the portion of Broca's area that became engaged, the greater the ability to read something cold and make themselves sound natural rather than stilted as though they were reading aloud. They both make sense in different ways -- the former is a collection connections between hemispheres, essentially a cable trunk, so greater volume = more neurons or bigger/more efficient/effective neurons, or something similar. In the latter, the smaller area is likely a function of greater interconnection allowing for more processing, more complex processing, faster processing due to less distance, or something like these.
In any case, all the parts examined in TFA are controlled in large part by the dopamine system, meaning they're involved in reward. That's reward in the Skinnerian sense -- reinforcement -- not in the sense of causing a good feeling. They're all involved in learning. The tasks measured were scored according to how well/fast someone learned the task or strategies/tactics that worked. So it all makes good plain old sense, as does much of the more nuts and bolts stuff in neuroscience.
A point of clarification vs. the Cosmic Log write up: they failed to find an interaction with the hippocampus, as opposed to finding none. Absence of evidence, etc. That doesn't mean it's not there, just that they failed to detect it if it was.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
With regards to the article title ("Correlation Found Between Brain Structure and Video Game Success"), after seeing that this article seems to be missing posts with the adequate meme, in the interest of completness and as per Slashdot tradition I would like to remind everybody that:
Correlation is not Causation
Thank you for your time.