The gamemers work the brain differently
Last reviewed: 07.12.2018
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The hobby for computer games in recent years is gaining in scale, especially many gamers among children and adolescents. Scientists have even stated that computer addiction is a plague of the 21st century.
In the medical school of the University of Utah, together with specialists from the South Korean University Chunan conducted a study, during which they studied the brain of gamers. The study involved 2 hundreds of boys and boys who devoted almost all their free time to games and, as it turned out, the functioning of the brain in them is different from those who very rarely or do not play computer games at all.
In the brain of gamers there are abnormal connections between different sites, because of what they forget about the world around and completely immersed in the virtual world.
The scientists found out that the anomalies affect the areas of the brain responsible for impulsivity, the response to stimuli, as a result, people forget about the need to eat, drink, sleep, etc.
According to Professor Jeffrey Anderson, most of the changes identified by experts are considered beneficial, but in some cases, such changes are closely intertwined with the resulting problems, for example, gambling. According to Professor Anderson for a quarter of a century in developed countries, a certain number of people have appeared who are too enthusiastic about the virtual world, including online games. Often, the body of inveterate gamers is so exhausted that they get to the hospital, in addition, gamers are able to forget about everything that surrounds them, including pets, children, relatives and relatives.
Jeffrey Anderson and his colleagues decided to check whether there are neurophysiological reasons for gambling addiction, and to identify methods to combat this pathology. Specialists attracted boys and young men who participated in the experiment to observe the game and monitored with the help of MRI how the activity of the brain changes during the game.
As a result, all participants had similar changes - between the temporomandibular node and the posterior part of the anterior cerebral cortex there was a close relationship, during the game these two sites actively exchanged information, which was not observed in people without game dependence.
As explained by scientists, the back of the anterior cortex is responsible for planning, working memory, new information, abstract thinking, temporomandibular node - for the accumulation of information coming from the senses. Also these two sites participate in a certain process, when the most important object is established at the moment, while other stimuli are ignored.
Because of the increased connection between the two parts of the brain, a person becomes nervous, forgets about his plans, is unable to concentrate for a long time. It is these changes, according to scientists, explain the behavioral changes among gamers.
As noted by the scientists, the child can determine the propensity to play dependency on the level of communication between the two above-mentioned areas of the brain, which will help in time to take appropriate measures and protect it from excessive obsession with computer games.