Video gamers may have brains like gamblers

TEENAGERS who spend a lot of time playing video games have brains similar to gamblers, research suggests.

Scientists found that an area of the brain was more active in children who spent an excessive amount of time playing the games.

The same area, the ventral striatum, is active in the brains of gamblers and is believed to compel them to keep betting when the odds are against them.

Teens were found to be quicker in making decisions in a game that required them to gamble.

It was also found that their brain’s reward centre became activated when they were losing, something seen in problem gamblers.

Lead researcher, Dr Simone Kuhn of Ghent University in Belgium, said none of the children involved in the study were addicted to gaming.

However, the research, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, raises the question as to whether gaming enlarges the brain’s pleasure centre or if people with larger pleasure centres take up video games. It could also reignite concerns that gaming can be considered an addiction.

Dr Kuhn said she believed that playing video games enlarged the brain’s pleasure centre but more research was needed.

“Although our subjects were not addicted to video games in the strict diagnostic sense, the current result seems to suggest that video gaming is related to addiction,” she said.

Video and computer games have become a highly popular activity for children and adolescents.

The study looked at 154 healthy 14-year-old adolescents — 72 boys and 82 girls — attending secondary schools in Berlin.

The participants played about one-and-a-half hours on weekdays and about two-and-a-half hours at weekends — just over 12 hours per week.

Psychiatrist Dr Siobhán Barry said that there was a concern that some children were boosting their dopamine levels playing video games and becoming addicted to them.

“The study does seem to indicate that the part of the brain that produces dopamine, a chemical that is related to pleasurable activities, is over-developed in teenagers.

“It might also be interesting to look at people who regularly play chess and other types of games from which they get a huge amount of enjoyment.

Ideally, she said, a study was needed where about 200 children were identified and then the subject of a study over a period of time.

Dr Barry said that she was concerned that playing video games was a mostly solitary occupation and some were quite violent.

“It is important to have a level of balance and that applies to everything — eating, drinking and other activities,” she said.