Do yuo have an enlarged ventral striatum?

[Pallas Gaudio]

The BBC reports that recent research shows that regular gamers have a larger ventral striatum "the hub of the brain's reward system'.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15720178

the region is "usually activated when people anticipate positive environmental
effects or experience pleasure such as winning money, good food, sex".

I wonder what happens to your ventral striatum after a long session on Calypso!

 

[steffel]

... positive environmental effects ... experience pleasure such as winning money, good food, sex

since the average EU player whines alot, does lose money, eats can soup and does not have contacts to persons of other gender in real life i assume chances are low of having the mentioned syndrome

 

[narfi]

since the average EU player whines alot, does lose money, eats can soup and does not have contacts to persons of other gender in real life i assume chances are low of having the mentioned syndrome

I dont whine,
I dont loose more than I can afford,
I eat hot home cooked meals,
and I have a hot wife.

Could this cause problems for my health?

narfi

 

[Om3n]

It's an interesting read that's for sure. On another note it's just a hypothesis that cant be backed up with any kind of relevant information.

Changes could be from countless things from additives in out food and drink that have only been around for 20-50 years. For what we know there could be traits passed down to our children based on these factors or ones that have developed from many other things such as small amounts of radiation or electrical impulses from all kinds of devices that kids have these days like cell phones etc.

They don't seem to be looking for any other causes. It almost suggests that these people in a way are trying to blame video game play for changes in the brain without determining if there could be any other potential causes of this effect.

It'd be hard pressed to say it is in the same part of the brain affected by addiction. I've been gaming for 25 years. I remember playing on things like the old colecovision. If work becomes burdensome i stop gaming as its what i need to do. It doesn't bother me nor make me go through any form of gaming withdrawal. WoW was bad for taking my time. Not a fault on the game though but the people who wanted to go through progression requiring a certain amount of play time otherwise you face being kicked from the group of friends you may have. Even there it's people not the game itself. Hard to suggest that is even a form of addiction cause we all enjoy having friends and some of them were my rl friends.

I dont spend outside my means for games although if the disposable income allows i will deposit a couple hundred in calypso. I bought a couple deeds not for the chance of a reward but to support the game i enjoy playing allowing them to do more of what they want or may need.

Of course i get excited seeing a global or a hof cause my ped seems to vanish like people drink water haha, but i doubt it has to do with an enlarged part of the brain. It's kind of the: something good happens so your happy. If we get a nice warm sunny day here it makes me happy cause it's something i enjoy, not cause i'm addicted to the sun or it's warmth.

 

[Cerberus]

since the average EU player whines alot, does lose money, eats can soup and does not have contacts to persons of other gender in real life i assume chances are low of having the mentioned syndrome

The findings suggest that regular gamers have a higher need or resistance. What it means is that either brain scans can reveal if you're at a high risk to get game-addicted, or if this part of your brain is further developed since you have used it quite often.

It's an interesting read that's for sure. On another note it's just a hypothesis that cant be backed up with any kind of relevant information.

Except the entire article is published in freaking nature http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v1/n11/full/tp201153a.html .

 

[Magyar_Republic]

My girlfriend says my ventral striatum is the biggest she's ever seen.

 

[Evil Aeon]

Ventral striatum ? hah Google cant translate this on my language ,is this good ?