CNN’s Doctor (how does a newsroom have a doctor, anyway?) Sanjay Gupta explains to the commonfolk why men are more apt to be addicted to video games than women.
Men and women were given a simple destroy-the-dots to play while their brains were hooked up to an MRI scanner. Showing three highlighted parts of the brain, Gupta says:
“What is important about those areas, Karen, is that they represent the reward centers of the brain, and they are much more brightly activated in men as compared to women.” He further explains that the study intended to answer the broader question of addiction, and whether men might be more inclined to become addicted to things.
Nevermind the usual gamer feedback that applies — the host seems intent on writing off games as a worthless pastime — the thing about these kinds of studies is the variables I’m really curious about never come out to play. For one, I’d be interested to know whether men’s reward centers light up more during any goal-oriented task. Might they feel more “addiction” to work or a household project as well?
Also, this game resembled something from the Atari era. Do more complicated games that involve more than just a simple high score objective lead to the same kind of brain activity? Do other emotions the player may feel during, say, Bioshock, interfere with this “addiction” trigger? Paging Dr. Gupta.
