games are the new drugs?

[Lockon]

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/9380/55744468xmmoonlinegamer.jpg

brain on the left is the game one.

Medical researchers comparing the brains of people addicted to online games and those addicted to drugs claim the same parts of the brain are affected in both cases, an insight which will come as little surprise to anyone familiar with MMORPGs.

 

The Korean research team used PET scans to analyse brain activity, and found the âgame addictsâ to have elevated activity in the areas such the orbitofrontal cortex and caudate nucleus compared to non-gamers.

 

Subsequent comparisons between the brains of MMO addicts (illustrated above on the right) and cocaine addicts (on the left) revealed similar patterns of activity.

 

The researchers express their hopes that these results will lead to a recognition of MMO addiction as a medical condition:

 

âThese research results demonstrate that online gaming addiction requires specialised medical treatment just as narcotics addiction does, and we hope it will be recognised as just such a mental illness.â

 

Edited December 12, 2009 by Lockon Stratos

[Dark Slipstream]

On the bright side, we can't die from playing video games.

 

Unless the gamer does the killing, then it will happen occasionaly by those 8 year olds who get their hands on Halo / CoD.

[TheEazyB]

Well, they are both an ADDICTION. I think that these similarities are based on that alone, not that the stimuli provided by both are comparable at all.

[iBotPeaches]

Its a better addiction compared to what you could be addicted to.

[Vedant]

thats because that part of the brain would be affected if you were addicted to ANYTHING. i dont see them bringing up the question saying "Are drug addictions just as bad as car addiction? Can these people live without cars?"(i am just using an example. i dont think you can REALLY be addicted to driving cars.) they are just trying to attack things that people like us like doing. in which they dislike.