Brains of Video Game Addicts Are Wired Differently, Study Says

Playing video games has its benefits but, of course, it also comes with negative effects.

In the study published at Addiction Biology, it was revealed that the brains of "compulsive" video game players are wired differently than those who are not. This helps players respond better to new information but, in return, makes them easily distracted even by small things.

University of Utah researchers in collaboration with Chung-Ang University in South Korea conducted the study among 151 South Korean adolescent boys. From the participants, 78 were with Internet gaming Disorder (IGD) while 73 were without IGD.

South Korea was chosen as video gaming is a popular activity in the country.

In order to arrive at their conclusion, the researchers scanned the brain of the participants through a 3-T resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis. Furthermore, to assess the degree of IGD among the participants as well as depression, anxiety and ADHD symptoms, the Young Internet Addiction Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Korean ADHD rating scales were used.

According to the report at University of Utah Health Care, the researchers found that the participants with IGD have more improved brain networks in the regions associated with vision and hearing. This results to an "enhanced coordination" in the salience networks which are responsible to focus attention.

"Hyperconnectivity between these brain networks could lead to a more robust ability to direct attention toward targets, and to recognize novel information in the environment. The changes could essentially help someone to think more efficiently." One of the next steps will be to directly determine whether the boys with these brain differences do better on performance tests," senior author Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., told University of Utah Health Care.

However, the researchers also observed that those with the gaming disorder have an enhanced coordination in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction of the brain. This enhancement, nonetheless, is observed among people with conditions such as schizophrenia, Down's syndrome and autism.

The researchers cited that the enhancement in the aforementioned regions of the brain can also lead to "distractibility."

"At this point it's not known whether persistent video gaming causes rewiring of the brain, or whether people who are wired differently are drawn to video games," Anderson said.

The study was said to be the biggest and most comprehensive investigation of the brain differences of compulsive video game players.

Previously, Latinos Post reported that 3D video gaming can help improve memory and brain function. The report, however, did not focus on video game addicts and does not include the possible negative effects of the activity.

WebMD cited that video game addiction is a modern-day psychological disorder that has been increasingly becoming popular.