Games 'prime brain for violence'

[Mr T.]

Discuss....


Games 'prime brain for violence'



The men studied all played violent games regularly

Playing a video game triggers the same violent responses in the brain as actual aggression, researchers claim.

A team from the University of Aachen, Germany, asked men to play a game which required them to kill terrorists in order to rescue hostages.

They found brain mapping scans showed the same kind of activity as when people imagine being violent themselves, New Scientist reports.

Game players' may be more "primed" for aggression, experts warn.

The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic


Professor Guy Cumberbatch, Communications Research Group



The study, presented to the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, follows on from other research which showed people who played violent computer games reported high levels of aggression and to have committed assaults and robberies.

The German team studied 13 men aged between 18 and 26, who played games for an average of two hours a day.

They asked the men to play a violent game while their brain activity was monitored using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning.

The researchers monitored the game scene by scene, and watched how brain activity changed during violent interactions and calmer interludes.

It was found that, when violence was imminent, the cognitive - information processing - parts of the brain became more active.

Response patterns

During a fight in the game, parts of the brain which deal with emotion, including the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex, were shut down.

The same pattern has been seen in brain scans of people during acts of real aggression.

Dr Klaus Mathiak, who led the research, said since it was impossible to scan the brains of people involved in actual fights, this was the closest researchers could get to seeing what was happening in people's brains.

Dr Niels Birbaumer, from the University of Tubingen in Germany, suggested playing games regularly would strengthen certain circuits in the brain, and a regular player faced with a real life violent situation may be more likely to react aggressively.

The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic. I don't think it is influenced in any way by playing these games


Dr Guy Cumberbatch
Communications Research Group



But Jeffrey Fagan, a violence expert from Columbia University in New York, said the link between the brain and violence was complex.

He said: "The frontal lobe functions associated with violence have more to do with restraint than the arousal to action".

And Dr Guy Cumberbatch, head of the independent Communications Research Group in the UK, said: "If the findings in this study were the same as when people responded to imaginary situations, why is it any different to seeing violence in films or at the theatre?

"The problem is, it's very much a witch-hunt in relation to video games."

He added: "The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic. I don't think it is influenced in any way by playing these games."

[ahar]

Originally Posted by Mr T.

He added: "The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic. I don't think it is influenced in any way by playing these games."

Says it all really

[SoggyFox]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I often get home at the end of a bad day at work really wound up with stupid people and pointless mangers and rather than going to the pub getting beared up on 8 pints of wife beater. I'll sit at home and take it out on a load of computer generated pixels and after i've killed enough for multiple life sentances i switch on the telly till my brain has completly ceased working. At which point my propensity for violence is nil.

This IMHO is the same link they're refering to as the video's and violence, its kids who aren't taught the difference between real and make believe and what is socially acceptable and whats not. More to do with our general maliase in society today.

[Dominic]

[SoggyFox]

Also by this sort of thinking and research, if i constantly play motor racing games at home i'll be a better driver ?????

[Dominic]

Yes, and God help you if you play Sonic the Hedgehog. . .

Mind you, if I played Super Mario for long enough, I might be able to fix that annoying dripping tap in the kitchen. But then, remembering THIS cartoon. . . maybe not

[Steve S]

Quite possibly when my Daughter used to play Spice world I always felt like twatting somebody

Safe diving,
Steve

[Gavin Smith]

To f*^$ing right they do.

If any of the bleeding heart liberal responsible for this sort of shi!te want to come and remove my Xbox and copy of St Andreas - well they are welcome to try.
I've barricaded the doors and set a claymore up on the drive. Paraphrasing Charlton Heston - from my cold, dead hand.

I'll be waiting for them...

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Gavin Smith

To f*^$ing right they do.

If any of the bleeding heart liberal responsible for this sort of shi!te want to come and remove my Xbox and copy of St Andreas - well they are welcome to try.
I've barricaded the doors and set a claymore up on the drive. Paraphrasing Charlton Heston - from my cold, dead hand.

I'll be waiting for them...

A link between backwoodsmen, militias, the NRA and video games...

Discuss.

[SoggyFox]

did i mention how good i am at the moving head shot.
I like them to be running before i take them down.

laz of lurv Cleetus G.W. Redneck