Playing with Kids' Minds?
Media watchdogs have long argued that exposure to violence on television,
and in movies and video games affects children’s behavior.
That theory has received considerable support in behavioral research,
but very little research has examined the impact of violent media
on the brain. Now a recent study at the IU School of Medicine shows
there are measurable differences in the brain patterns of adolescents
while playing violent video games.
What the researchers found was a difference in brain activity between
youths with diagnosed behavior disorders and normal adolescents
when exposed to violent videos.
The departments of Radiology and Psychiatry used functional neuroimaging,
a technology that is leading to more accurate methods of understanding
mental problems and, hopefully, will lead to major advances in treatment.
Neuroimaging is currently used to study such disorders as Parkinson
and Alzheimer diseases and multiple sclerosis.
IUSM researchers hope that in the near future it will provide more
definitive information in the diagnosis and treatment of such mental
health disorders as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disease.
They also are optimistic that the technology will reveal secrets
previously hidden in the minds of individuals.
“This study serves as a good first step in our ability to
identify the relationship between violent media exposure and brain
function,” says William Kronenberger, PhD, associate professor
of psychiatry and study co-investigator. “I hope that future
studies will get us closer to being able to assess the cause-and-effect
relationship between exposure to violent TV and video games and
neural activity.”
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure brain
function, the IU researchers found that there was less activity
in critical portions of the brains of the group previously diagnosed
with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD).
Initial evidence demonstrates that adolescents with DBD have different
frontal lobe activation patterns than teens without the disorder,
with the fMRI scans showing less brain activity in the frontal lobe
while the youths with DBD watch violent video games.
The frontal lobe is the area of the brain responsible for decision-making
and behavior control, as well as attention and a variety of other
cognitive functions.
“This is the first evidence that adolescents with aggressive,
disruptive behavior disorders have brain activation patterns that
are different from non-aggressive adolescents while watching video
games,” says Dr. Kronenberger.
Some might interpret this information as proof that violent media
exposure causes changes in brain functioning, but what it really
indicates is that more studies are needed, Dr. Kronenberger notes.
Those studies, supported by the Center for Successful Parenting,
are planned, including one that will look at brain functioning and
the emotional responses of adolescents with different levels of
aggressive behavior and different exposures to media violence.
The original study involved thirty-eight teens – nineteen
with no history of significant behavioral problems and nineteen
with DBD. The healthy teens, who were in the control group, had
no history of violence. However, the DBD participants had experienced
violent episodes in the six months prior to the study. Both groups,
who were selected from the local public schools, were matched for
age, gender and other factors to make them as comparable as possible.
DBD can be separated into two behavioral disorders. One group is
characterized by persistent rule breaking and resistance to the
limits of authority. The other consists of significant violations
of the basic rights of others and includes such actions as destruction
of property, theft, truancy, human or animal cruelty and fire setting.
The study did not differentiate between the two.
In this study, conducted over a two-year period, teens with DBD
and teens without DBD watched a car racing video game that had excitement
without violent content and a James Bond video game that had excitement
and moderately violent content. While watching the video games,
the youths were scanned with fMRI to determine changes in brain
activity.
The youths were not actually playing the video game because of
the limitations imposed by the MRI equipment, but they did have
the feeling of participation since they pushed a response button
each time they thought the video character should take action. All
of the youths in the study had some degree of prior exposure to
video games.
In addition to determining that exposure to violent videos affects
the brains of these two groups differently, the researchers found
something else they believe deserves more study. They found that
among subgroups of the non-aggressive adolescents there were differences
in brain function related to the amount of violent media exposure
the teens reported experiencing on television and in video games
during the past year.
“There appears to be a relationship between the way the brain
responds to experiencing video violence and the amount of past exposure
to violent video games, movies and television,” says Dr. Kronenberger,
who worked with principal investigator and neuro-radiologist Vince
P. Matthews, MD, on the study.
These early findings confirm there is a difference in the brain
activation patterns of youths with DBD and those without when exposed
to a specific stimulus. There also may be a relationship between
past history of violent media exposure and brain activity in normal
subjects. These results indicate what part of the brain should be
studied in future, more controlled research studies, researchers
add.
Other IU researchers involved with the study are Mark Lowe, PhD,
Tie-Qiang Li, PhD, Yang Wang, MD, and David Dunn, MD.
|
