Comparison Between Addicts and Normal Controls Enjoying 4 Hours a Day
"Don't Get Excessively Hooked, Maintain Healthy Hobbies"
The old saying that "playing games for too long makes you less intelligent" is likely true. Research has shown that game addiction negatively affects brain cognitive functions and emotional processing abilities.
Professor Choi Jeong-seok's team from the Department of Psychiatry at Samsung Seoul Hospital released the results on the 5th after comparing and analyzing the effects of game addiction on the brain in 26 patients treated for game addiction and 25 normal control subjects.
These patients and control subjects were aged between 18 and 39. The criteria for game addiction were those who play games for more than 4 hours a day and over 30 hours a week.
The research team first conducted 'resting-state functional MRI,' which detects changes related to blood flow to measure brain activity, and 'event-related potential EEG,' which records electrical responses of the brain to specific stimuli from the scalp.
Test results showed that patients had increased brain activity in the frontal and parietal lobes on functional MRI compared to the normal control group. However, the amplitude of EEG signals in response to auditory stimuli decreased. Depending on the type of test, certain brain regions reacted hypersensitively while others showed reduced sensitivity, indicating an imbalance in information processing among brain structures in game addicts.
Additionally, addicts generally exhibited weakened hippocampus and amygdala functions. The hippocampus and amygdala significantly influence memory and learning related to emotions. This implies a decline in brain function among game addicts.
Professor Choi Jeong-seok emphasized, "This study confirmed that game addiction actually affects brain cognitive functions and emotional processing abilities," adding, "Since game addiction impacts actual brain function, I hope people do not become excessively absorbed in games and instead use them as a healthy hobby."
Meanwhile, the study results were published in the international academic journal Journal of Behavioral Addictions.
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