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Teenagers who game for more than nine hours a week may have a similar brain structure to gambling addicts, the Daily Mail reports.
A study of 150 14-year old gamers in Germany which played for more than nine hours a week revealed they have a larger “reward centre” in their brains than those who played less – which is said to be like that of a gambling addict.
The ventral striatum, or reward centre, is activated when we experience pleasure, for example by winning money, eating chocolate or having sex, says the Daily Mail.
Dr Simon Kuhn of Ghent University in Belgium and colleagues in the UK and Germany are the first to connect frequent video gaming with differences in brain structure and activity.
These gamers produced more of the feel-good chemical dopamine, with a further increase when losing a game – likened to the effect seen in gamblers unable to stop when on a losing streak. Gaming is also said to reduce decision time, which while vital in many games, is also a characteristic of gamblers.
The Daily Mail also points out that researchers don’t know whether gaming causes the brain to change, or whether people are born with a brain structure which craves gaming. Researches believe that the results are, however, a crucial first step in understanding whether video games are addictive.
Thinking about it, Poker Nights do seem a popular event in the gaming industry!
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