Violent Video Games Change the Way Guys Think, Study Shows

A new study shows that violent video games change the way guys think.
A new study shows that violent video games change the way guys think.

Women have long complained that video games mess with their boyfriends' minds, and for years parents have worried about the long-term effects first-person shooter games and games with realistic and gratuitous violence can have on their children's brains. Now, a new study may confirm their fears: Violent video games change the way guys think and feel.

The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America on Wednesday, shows that just one week of playing violent video games can have a measurable effect on the brains of young adult men.

"For the first time, we have found that a sample of randomly assigned young adults showed less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games at home," said Dr. Yang Wang, an assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. "These brain regions are important for controlling emotion and aggressive behavior."

The researchers didn't specify which video games the study participants played, and did not say whether the games showed realistic or fantastical violence or focused on war, gang activity, or other types of violence. The small sample size -- just 22 guys -- makes it impossible to apply the data to a wide audience, but violent video games have long been linked to fighting at school and self-reported aggression.

The study focused on young men ages 18 to 29. They were assigned by random into two groups, one of which was told to play violent video games at home for 10 hours during one week, and then spend a second week not playing them. The other group did not play a violent video game at all during those same two weeks.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) tests were conducted on both groups before the gaming, at the end of the first week, and at the end of the second week. The results were alarming.

"The results showed that after one week of violent game play, the video game group members showed less activation in the left inferior frontal lobe during the emotional task and less activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during the counting task, compared to their baseline results and the results of the control group after one week," according to the study. "After the second week without game play, the changes to the executive regions of the brain were diminished."

What does that mean for girlfriends and parents? "These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning," Dr. Wang said. And the areas affected have to do with emotional control and executive function.

Do you have a gamer in your life? What have you noticed after he's been playing for a few hours?




Also on Shine: