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 “game addicts” 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:
“These 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.”
Via Internet.com.
I know a cure for online game addiction – P&P RPGs!
[i]”In other news, cynical researchers comparing the brains of medical researchers and politicians claim the same parts of the brain are affected in both cases, an insight which will come as little surprise to anyone familiar with thinking.”[/i]
Korea, oh you….
This kind of research has been around for quite a while already. I remember telling a story about to my friends like 8-9 years ago.
Wonder what it would show for a Drug Addicted Gamer?
http://k21st.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/seeking-pleasure-food-sex-music-university-of-oxford/
as seen on http://jeuxvideo.fluctuat.net/blog/41391-recherche-bullshit-la-similarite-cerebrale-entre-drogue-et-gamer.html
Yeah, Korean are dumb
I smoke weed every day because of my medical need for it (legal 🙂 ) but its crazy cause I totally understand how these two things have correlations. I used to play games ALWAYS. now I smoke weed ALWAYS and play games sometime. and djing has taken up a part of my life.
so yeah… peace… =_=