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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
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.
That might have less to do with video games than it does with robotics. (I imagine Mr. Universe would agree.)
"What's the use in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes?" --Fourth Doctor, "Robot"
This is the correlation you were looking for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y
Look at all those girls...
:-P
Expect a long wait
up up down down left right left right b a start
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
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
Yes, people are different. And, the insurance companies want to know which differences are most profitable for them, so that they can drop everyone else.
"Ohh, see the ratios in size of these two lobes in your brain? We can't insure you due to preexisting conditions!!"
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I'm waiting for a correlation between those who 'get laid' with the implication that that means "sex is all I care about" to those who actually have dynamic lives above the reptilian brain stem...
up up down down left right left right b a start
That's what *she* said!
There was a Murphy Brown episode where Murphy was barking instructions at a person running a video editing machine.
Murphy: "Faster... slower... go back!"
Guy: "You sound just like my wife."
Murphy: "Oh, just hurry up and get it over with!"
Guy: "Uncanny..."
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.
Not to worry. Insurance companies will be dead soon enough.
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.
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."
Correlation is not causation!!!!!
Wait, that doesn't even make sense here.
-- 77IM
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.
No, insurance companies would like to assign people to like risk pools, and charge accordingly. Anything which allows them to put me in a different pool than some idiot who takes lots of risks is fine by me. Why should I have to subsidize others?
Not to worry. Insurance companies will be dead soon enough.
Do you have news of the end of the human race?
It's like the Alphabet Game for nerds.
Yes, but if you don't count sheep or cows, you rule out 95% of Americans!
Yes, that sounds good in theory. But, wait til YOU find that you have a pre-existing condition. DNA profiling promises to give the insurance companies plenty of ammunition in that field.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
So you're saying I should be able to make others pay for my health care?
I'm saying that splitting hairs over risky behaviour and/or conditions is bullshit. You won't save money on the deal, it will only COST SOMEONE. The insurance company is out to make money, and like any good marketers, they'll use anything and everything to convince fools to part with their money.
Let's suppose that DNA profiling determines that one or two genes, or a pair of genes in combination, says that you are almost certain NOT to get cancer. Do you think that your rates will go DOWN? If so, you are very naive. Instead, they'll keep your rates the same (until the next regularly scheduled rate increase) but they'll charge everyone else MORE for being susceptible to cancer.
You don't win - you just lose a wee bit less than the other guy.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
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!!
So you're saying I should be able to make others pay for my health care?
You know, I really don't understand this attitude when dealing with insurance. The whole point of insurance is to "insure" yourself against unexpected costs by having others pay for it if you happen to be the one that gets dealt the bad hand. If everyone is just going to pay for what they need, there really isn't much point in having insurance at all is there?
With normal insurance that's not hampered by government regulation, a person pays into a pool and is guaranteed to have unexpected costly care covered. The amount he pays each month is based on the risk each member of the pool poses. Each member IS paying for the benefit he receives.
When you prevent accurate determination of risk, you force sub-optimal pooling. You get high-risk people in a pool that contains many low-risk people, such that the low-risk people pay for risks they don't bring.
Team Fortress will work much better.
New Economic Perspectives
No, I am from the US.
I'm just a pessimist.
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
Greetings and Salutations....
No, insurance companies would like to assign people to like risk pools, and charge accordingly. Anything which allows them to put me in a different pool than some idiot who takes lots of risks is fine by me. Why should I have to subsidize others?
You seem to have a slight misunderstanding of the Insurance industry. It does NOT exist to help you, or to make sure that you have lower premiums. It is a "for profit" industry, therefore exists to suck as much cash out of our pockets as is possible and put it into the investors and workers in the industry.
Any time they have to pay out on a claim, it is an expense that cuts profits, and, therefore, they will do all they can to either deny that claim, or, either cancel the policy ASAP, or, move the claimant to a much more expensive pool. They make their money back, and then some.
I realize this is the darkest face of the insurance industry that I am presenting here, and, it is not universally true. However, more and more, this is the model that the industry is moving towards, in that unending struggle to make more money this quarter than they did last quarter.
pleasant dreams
dave mundt
YAB - http://blog.beemandave.com/
FTA
Meanwhile, those who were well-endowed in different areas...
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
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.
Destroying the buggars. Sheesh! What a homophobe.
...
addqd
@humanity: *facepalm*
Except that, if it costs the government more, the entire pool of tax payers pays, one way or the other.
Either A) the government has the money from existing taxes and pays or B) the government borrows money and then increases taxes to pay for the claim AND the borrowing.
In both cases, only those actually paying taxes are screwed.
I should buy stock in it, so when the insurance company screws me, it's actually looking out for my financial interests.
If you think that was trolling, then the part of your brain that processes language is smaller than average.