November 15, 2011

expert reaction to research looking at the brain’s reward system in excessive video-game players as published in Translational Psychiatry

A large collaborative study compared the brain structure of heavy video-gamers and non-gamers and found specific differences, although not a causal link between gaming and structural change.

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Neurosciences, Imperial College London, said:

“These findings, linking ventral striatum abnormalities to compulsive computer gaming in young people, are highly relevant to clinical practice as they further close the gap between this activity and other addictions, giving us a better understanding of possible long term treatment interventions.

“The exciting next step will be to determine, as with other addictions, whether volumetric differences are a cause or effect of excessive human behaviour and in either case, tailor treatment programs accordingly.”

Dr Luke Clark, University Lecturer, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, said:

“This is the first study to look at brain structure in adolescent video-gamers, comparing 76 regular gamers against 78 less frequent gamers. The increased neuronal volume of the ventral striatum in the regular gamers is really provocative, because this is a central hub in the brain’s motivational system and dopamine pathway. But the burning question that this study does not resolve is whether the structural difference is a change caused by the frequent game play, or whether individual differences in this system naturally dispose some people to more excessive play. For teenagers, parents, and clinicians to make sense of this finding, we need research monitoring brain structure over time.

“Video-game play is hugely popular among teenagers: indeed the average weekly usage in this large brain imaging experiment was 12 hours per week. There is an ongoing debate among clinicians about whether excessive video-game play should be recognised as a mental disorder, perhaps grouped within the addictions.”

‘The Neural Basis of Gaming’ by S. Kuhn et al., published in Translational Psychiatry (a Nature Publishing Group journal) on Tuesday 15 November 2011.