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CHICAGO, U.S.A., December 2, 2002: Hours of playing violent video games can affect the way the brain works on a cellular level, causing misfiring of signals between nerve cells or slowing brain activity, researchers have discovered. The adverse effects are most apparent among teens that are diagnosed with a condition called disruptive behavior disorder or DBD. These kids, according to Dr. Vincent P. Mathews of the University of Indiana Medical School in Indianapolis, are the ones most likely to “act out by harming animals or property or fighting with other kids.” When he used a high tech scanning device called functional magnetic resonance imaging to track brain function in adolescents with DBD, he discovered “less activity in the frontal lobes,” the area of the brain that controls emotions and impulses as well as attention span. Moreover when the DBD kids were exposed to violent video games, “there was even less activity,” Mathews said. The study suggests repeated exposure to the violent video games is “desensitizing the brain … the result is that the child can no longer understand the real effect of violence,” said Dr. Carol Rumach, professor of radiology and pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, who was not involved in the study. Even normal teens who said they frequently watched violent television and movies as well as regularly playing violent games had decreased activity when exposed to the violent video, Mathews said. Moreover, the brain changes were most apparent among “heavy users, meaning those who played for several hours every day,” he said.

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