All parents and those of us producing or exposing youngsters to digital media must remember that we are likely fooling with Mother Nature's profoundest miracles. Let's keep our kids' brains green!
For summaries, see below. Original article: http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v1/n11/full/tp201153a.html
Eitan Schwarz MD DLFAPA FAACAP
Www.mydigitalfamily.org
Frequent Videogame
Playing In Teens Associated With Larger Ventral Striatum.
The Los Angeles Times (11/15, Brown) Booster
Shots blog reported, Fourteen-year-olds who were frequent video
gamers had more gray matter in the rewards center of the brain than peers who
didn't play video games as much -- suggesting that gaming may be correlated to
changes in the brain much as addictions are.
Reuters (11/16, Kelland) reports that
according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the journal
Translational Psychiatry, adolescents who many hours weekly playing videogames
appear to have a greater volume of gray matter in the brain's ventral striatum,
a part of the brain influenced by dopamine. Researchers arrived at this
conclusion after examining functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of some
150 14-year-old teens who spent about 12 or more hours a week playing such
games.
WebMD (11/16, Boyles) points out, however,
that it was not clear if playing video games led to the increase or if
kids with larger volumes of ventral striatum were more drawn to video games in
the first place.
Medscape (11/16, Waknine) quotes the study
authors, who wrote, Individuals with higher ventral striatum volume might
experience video gaming as more rewarding in the first place. This in turn
could facilitate skill acquisition and lead to further reward from
playing. The investigators theorized that this could lead to more
risky behavior and negatively interact with decision-making, including that
involved in developing addiction to drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamine,
and alcohol.
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