Notice how they never seem to compare this to any other activities or other forms of media?

How did this activity decrease blood flow to the brain? Are there any details?

How many of the 30 participants experienced blood loss? If it was one out of 30, then one would venture he/she has another health disorder.

I am absolutely baffled with the results. I'm not a doctor, but I have never heard anything like this before, regardless of the activity (unless you count hanging upside/sleeping sideways). People pass out all the time exercising, due to improper breathing or being out of shape, which is commonly due to lack of oxygen rich blood reaching the brain.

I really want some details on this, if anyone can find it.

Actually, this was Taiwan, which came from the old Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek, not the pseudo-communists who run China now.

Still, this is so weird that every day there's another study and the results are pure opposites of one another. There are never enough details on the results, either.

@Cauldrath

Well, Brain Age is a game specifically designed to stimulate the brain and isn't violent at all, so no.

One important thing I should note about all violent entertainment though: it always effects us. In fact, everything you see and experience becomes part of you and is bound to affect your mood, life, and personality at some point. I enjoy a good Serious Sam match as much as the next fellow, but the key is moderation.

But I'm curious and want to know more as well. Video games vary widely in content and quality, so it's difficult for one to credibly group all violent games together and say they all do the same thing awful things, and I wouldn't go so far as to say they cause brain damage at all. (Unless it's mindless drivel like Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing, Shrek n' Roll, or Manhunt 2 The Metal Gear Solid Wannabe.)

Who's the guy in the picture? He looks like Dr. Strangelove.

This is bunk. Similar bloodflow checks have been done on smart people vs normal people, and the smart people showed *less*, implying that the structure was becoming more efficient. Blood flow levels alone don't mean squat.

me dun't beweave stoodee. :-)

Decreased blood blow to the brain.....sounds like they were about to have strokes more than anythign else. :)

I’ll wait until a doctor from a real country does a study like this.

This isn't a study that would surprise me coming from a doctor in the US. I say we just wait for a real doctor.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Interactive games don't stimulate the brain, they prevent blood loss?

One study can't really back up what the news article claims to say. More replication studies will be needed and comparison studies between different media will also be needed.

I'm with Conejo on this one. Since when have scientific studies in highly oppressed nations had anything to do with actual results or truth? I don't mean to sound ethnocentric or racist or whatever, but Taiwan isn't necessarily the 'go to' nation for hard scientific fact.

There's always going to be a research bias, and regardless of what they really want, they're going to announce any little factoid they can. Maybe there was a .5% change in blood-flow to the frontal lobe, but what about the rest of the brain? Maybe every other lobe is seeing an increased blood flow? Maybe There is more going on when a person is playing videogames besides a change in blood flow, don't you think?

Great, so brain age is all a lie now?

I wonder what studies would show about athletes who participate in contact sports like football, hockey, rugby, or boxing. They have never been known to get into fights or anything... and yet parents still encourage their children to participate in those activities...

Brain damage... yeah, right. That's a bit heavy of a term, don't you agree?
I am also trying to understand how gaming is supposed to slow blood flow to the brain. I'm no scientist, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

This is your brain... (healthy brain)

This is your brain on games... (screwed up brain)

No, this isn't as catchy as I thought it would be, either.

decreased blood flow does NOT equate to brain damage. If there was decreased blood flow to the emotional centers, that merely means the person wasn't emotionally involved.

What game were the test subjects playing? How much was the blood flow decreased? How positive are we that the area of the brain in question controls emotional response? How much had the person in question played that game before? Was he enjoying himself? What was blood doing in the other parts of the brain? All these questions will effect how the results could be interpreted.

If the subject was playing a game that sucked, or a game that doesn't accurately portray most games, that would skew the results. If the decreased blood flow was by an insignifigant amount, that could be an error in measurement or something else. If the test subjects had played the game a lot before, being emotionally uninvolved (especially if they weren't having fun) would make sense. The decreased bloodflow to emotional centers may have been because of INcreased bloodflow to other areas.

Overall, without looking at the actual test results, and without serious peer evaluation, we can't take anything this result says for truth, especially in light of studies that point to the opposite being used for the development of the Brain Age games.

this study just in!

junk science found as a great way to get money without doing any work!

This just in: standing within 10 feet of a fire makes your body, and thus your heart, heat up! We had 30 adults stand near a fire, and measured their external temperature, then measured their temperature when NOT near a fire. All subjects showed a higher temperature! And it's been shown that a heart that is too hot cannot operate correctly! ZOMG ban fires!!! Fires must cause heart attacks and other heart problems!!!

I enjoy the fact that they used the smallest possible sample number (30) to get a broad spectrum analysis of the entire population...this from the country that banned Mass Effect for a day because of a 'love sequence' that was about as risque that was in the movie Titanic. Taking this one with a grain of salt.

It was mentioned on Kotaku that the game they tested was DYNASTY WARRIORS. I think it was DW5, but it hardly matters. The game requires about as much thought as it takes to press the same button repeatedly until the enemies stop coming at you.

I think the results would be very different if the participants played a puzzle game, a first-person shooter, guitar hero, or a multiplayer game against other intelligent opponents.

JBT saying his "predictions" were right, in...

3, 2, 1

Games may not cause my frontal lobe damage, but bashing my head against the wall at the utter stupidity of studies like these very well may. Now I just need 29 other people with similar results and I can publish a moronic study as well.

Uh, Taiwan isn't a highly oppressed nation, unless you think it's part of China (which would kind of prove the brain damage point). Taiwan is the place where members of opposing political parties have fistfights in Parliament (decreased blood flow much?).

Please don't give JB more fodder to chew on by displaying your wonderful ignorance.

As for the study, yeah, assuming that decreased blood flow AFTER gaming correlates in any way to brain damage is... silly. Although I'll grant that Dynasty Warriors and brain damage might have some correlation :D

just a quick thing THERE ARE TWO CHINAS

peoples republic of china: the one you hear about the most which by the way is not communist

then theres the republic of china: a whole different country, which is not even in the mainland, its a little island, they are where the oppositors to old china went.

anyways this study comes from the second china.

If Thompson doen't get disbarred, I'll bet my left kidney that he'll reference this study at some point.

@MalevolentBut dont you see? Increased coordination means that all the millions of kids that are training on violent games will have better abilities to go on suicidal rampages!!/saracasm, but thats what JT would say

@Absinthe

no, there is one China. just because Taiwan doesn't want to be part of the mainland doesn't mean squat.

there are still people in Taiwan who are pro-mainland.

still its recognized as a separate country

This is so stupid, words cannot describe it.

*slaps a "doctor" with money stuffed pockets*

I SAID SIT DOWN!

@ scot

I don't see how he could draw that conclusion - you have to speak an entirely different language to understand most text messages!

Am I the only one that noticed the .gov.tw extention? I don't like Taiwan anymore.

This clearly explains the decrease in youth violence we've experienced over the last several years.

What a tool - or - should I say What a ??.

Well, that's Korean, but close enough.

Taiwan is awesome. I plan on going there next year. But this dude is not. I love my video games, but I am not a violent person at all. I hate real-life violence and I would never want to kill any human or animal.

@bobby

I think you're talking about Thailand. Of course, nearly every country in the world has its share of illegal prostitution.

Aside from the fact that they Had to qualify it, meaning they lacked displayable proof. Their tests and assumptions are... amusing. "Playing video games decreased blood flow to the frontal lobes." Um getting an erection will do much the same, or standing up to fast. Wonder if certain colors or patterns of flashing lights would have the same effect. Oh not of interest, it is all about bashing games.

Please, have something worth writting a paper on, than wishful thinking and guesswork.

I love how all the relevant details of the research is included, like information about the doctor and the gamers he observed, the methodology and tools used, the science behind the observations, and reproduction of results.

hmm.....so a new study done by....Taiwan is supposedly more accurate than the Canadian study that shows the exact opposite that video games slow the decay of the brain the equivilant of learning a second language? Hmm and it just happens to be worse with violent games? it's a bit pathetic really.

hear that people? Taiwan is jumping on the video games made me do it bandwagon tut tut.

next thing you know they'll be doing a study that shows 100% of teen gamers experience moodswings....ever heard of puberty?
(if they havent already they will just you wait and see)

If they game they were using was really Dynasty Warriors 5, then I have no doubt people's brains were damaged.

I just conducted a study over the weekend and discovered other things which affect emotional control: Mechanical Breakdowns, Roll-Overs, Christmas Trees that don't catch fire, Bad Electrical systems and running out of beer.

some people can never accept that video games might be bad for you. others can't accept that video games might have some beneficial effects. lets all get indignant and self-righteous and argue a lot!!!

'no conclusions'
'might'
'can (not will)'

3 Speculative words in a single paragraph....

F-

Someone doesn't pass their report writing exam, that reads more like a statistics briefing, and we all know about statistics, like Anti-Dandruff shampoos that are 'up to 100% effective', this translates to 'between zero and one hundred percent' certain that games cause emotional problems.