Civilization V - Game-play screenshot
Be honest here. Of those of you that play or played games, in some point in your life, did you not participate in the following situation? Your mom or dad calls you for dinner. You are in the middle of an "important" decision in a game and you scream back "I 'll be there in a minute". Then the one minute becomes five and the five ten. Finally you join them in the middle of dinner as if you were dealing with a life altering decision back there.
Of course some of you will say I don't get controlled by games, I don't play them. The difference is that you are not playing games. If you don't use something how will you be addicted to it. In the place of "games" you can put something else in there, like a TV program, reading, smoking a cigarette, work papers etc. A task you are doing that in the process causes you to be unsociable.
How does gaming addiction relates to science though? Apparently many studies have been conducted around this issue. An early research by Ko, Chih-Hung et al in 2009, showed that gaming addiction and substance addiction may share the same neurobiological mechanism.
The way they deduced that was by putting ten subjects with gaming addiction and ten controls, under fMRI and showing them gaming pictures and mosaic pictures. In the subjects with the gaming addiction when shown the gaming pictures the:
- right orbitofrontal cortex,
- right nucleus accumbens,
- bilateral anterior cingulate and medial frontal cortex,
- right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and
- right caudate nucleus
The same scientist team conducted a similar research in 2011 producing similar results.
This as far as the neurological implications go. The main issue though is the impact a gaming addiction has on your life. Sure, there are some people that use this addiction as part of who they are, winning competitions, earning money etc (note that these imply social adeptness and an energetic person, not sitting on your sofa all day).
But if a gaming addiction is not going to contribute anything on your life, is it really any less dangerous than a substance-abuse addiction? Maybe in the sense that is less dangerous for your body but as far as the sociological and psychological impact it has, it may be worth tuning it down a notch.
References:
Ko Chih-Hung, Liu Gin-Chung, Hsiao Sigmund, Yen Ju-Yu, Yang Ming-Jen, Lin Mei-Chen, Yen Cheng-Fang, Chen Cheng-Sheng. (2009). Brain Activities Associated With Gaming Urge Of Online Gaming Addiction. Journal of Psychiatric Research , Volume 43 , Issue 7 , 739 - 74.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.09.012
Ko Chih-Hung, Liu Gin-Chung, Yen Ju-Yu, Chen Chiao-Yun, Yen Cheng-Fang and Chen Cheng-Sheng. (2013). Brain correlates of craving for online gaming under cue exposure in subjects with Internet gaming addiction and in remitted subjects. Addiction Biology, Volume 18, Issue 3, pages 559–569.
Article first published online: 26 OCT 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment