Mind, games
Jane McGonigal was right!
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.
[Source: Los Angeles Times]
As I believe I’ve mentioned before, my wife is a neuroscientist, and she would explain this with the old saw, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Well, it’s a saw in the world of brain science. It’s the old Skinner box schtick: an unexpected reward gives your brain a bigger hit of dopamine than an expected one. Do that often enough and you’ll wear a groove in your brain like a wagon wheel on a dirt road, only instead of a groove, it’s the synapses in your brain fusing together. What all of this means is somewhat up to interpretation. Are gamers just another flavor of addict, like alcoholics? Are they a super-race, with brains that have been transformed by stimulation? Yes and no, to both. How unsatisfying! Well that’s why my wife is the grad student and I am not.
By the way, if mind games are what you’re after, you must watch ABC’s misbegotten game show “Million Dollar Mind Game.” I wrote for this show: not the version that aired, but the episodes that got it on the air when it was still in development at ABC. If it comes back, maybe I’ll write for it again! They only made 6 episodes and they buried them (by broadcasting them on Sundays at 1 PM against football) but they’re all watchable on YouTube. Here’s the best one. Enjoy!
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