We've seen plenty of psychiatric studies in recent years that examine the behavioral effects of playing video games, especially violent games. For example, earlier this year I interviewed Dr. Craig Anderson, a professor of psychology at Iowa St. University who is recognized as a leading expert in the effects of media violence. These psychological examinations have long suggested there are significant effects of playing hours and hours of violence video games, but there hasn't been as much hard scientific data to indicate what the effects are exactly.

However, a new study indicates that there are indeed physical effects on the brain that manifest themselves during the play of violent titles. Dr. Vincent Mathews, professor of radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, lead a recent study that randomly selected 44 adolescents to play a violent game or a "nonviolent but equally fun and exciting game" for 30 minutes to see how their brains reacted. The games selected were Medal of Honor: Frontline, which is a mildly violent T-rated title, and the completely nonviolent racing game Need for Speed: Underground. Using MRI technology, the doctors observed and recorded the differences in brain activity during the 30 minutes.

According to Dr. Mathews' study, the adolescents who had played violent video games exhibited more brain activity in a region thought to be important for emotional arousal and less activity in a brain region associated with executive functions, which includes the ability to plan, shift, control and direct one's thoughts and behavior. Meanwhile, the group that played the nonviolent game exhibited more activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain, which are control inhibition, concentration and self-control, and showed less activation in the area involved in emotional arousal.

"Our study indicates that playing a certain type of violent video game may have different short-term effects on brain function than playing an exciting but nonviolent game," Dr. Mathews said in a press statement about the new study. It's not clear, of course, what the long-term effects on brain activity are for playing these two titles, and the IU researchers have said they plan on conducting future studies that examine the duration of violence in video games and its effect on brain functions.

While 44 adolescents are a relatively small sample for such a big issue like video game violence, I for one am intrigued by these studies. I think it's laughable to suggest violent games will lead to children killing people in Grand Theft Auto-style. On the other hand, I suspect there may be smaller, more subtle effects on the brain from playing games 10 hours a day. I wonder if IU is taking applications for its next video game study...

The term “video game addiction” has been seen quite a bit lately, including on Tom’s Hardware and TwitchGuru. But it seems that it will have to wait a little bit longer before becoming an official medical diagnosis on the order or gambling addiction and alcohol. Attendees at the America Medical Association’s (AMA) annual meeting argued that the issue of compulsive video game playing needs more research and further studies from psychiatrists before becoming classified as a mental disorder.