extensive gaming == ADD

[nemesiss]

According to a research of the Iowa State University there is a clear connection dispayed between extensive game-playing and ADD.

During the study researches have measured both proactive and reactive brainactivity of the guinneepigs. Especially the proactive activities was important for the researchers because with this the properties of humand for the anticipation of what is going to happen.

A distuingtion wa made between humans who hardly played games and humans who spend alot of time on games.
Both groups had to do visual test individually wher the colour of a word had to be judged quickly.
If a word was "red" and also the colour was red was this correct, if a word was "red" but the colour was blue it was wrong.

From this was concluded that humans who spend more then 4 hours per day on games had significantly deteriation in the proactive brainactivity.

"this means a deteriation of the brainactivity and a disturbance of the behavior when it comes to the possibility to focus on something", claim the researchers.

Though the team admit the had to work with limited means, they hope that the outcome can assist in the treatment of concentrationproblems with the youth. The research was publish in the american magazine Psychophysiology.



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Since i haven't read to original report i will give them some slack.
However, games nowadays demand alot of concentration that you can be mentally exhausted which offcourse means that such a test is meaningless. Also, i'd like to know what the people were doing in the mean time while the other testgroup was gaming.

 

[Nogre]

I would want to see how big their sample was and what other factors were considered. I'd also like to see what kind of explanation they have for the causal link, since correlation doesn't mean causation every time. I'm sceptical because in the past, I gamed for way more than four hours a day, and I tend much more towards OCD over ADD. I get doing something, and focus on it so much, I forget about other things I should be doing; I don't constantly get distracted. I could just be an exception, but it just seems like the skills used in video games would teach you to stay focused on a goal over a long period of time.

I'll look around to see if I can find the article online in a database somewhere...this just seems strange.

 

[Nogre]

Okay, I found it pretty easily, so I'm reporting my findings. Link is here, but I'm on a college network that grants me access to a lot of databases that require a subscription, so you might not be able to access it.

To sum up reading it, a ton of it went over my head (so much stuff about different parts of the brain and such :? ), but it seemed like a pretty legitimate study. Just to make their conclusion a little clearer, here are some quotes summing up the important parts I got from the article (this isn't the actual science stuff, just their stance and conclusion):

Prior research demonstrates that video game experience has a beneficial effect on visuospatial cognition (Green & Bavelier, 2003, 2006). For instance, studies of individual differences reveal that video game experience may increase the efficiency of laparoscopic procedures in surgical residents (Rosser et al., 2007) and reduce gender differences in visuospatial attention (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007). Additionally, training studies demonstrate that significant improvements in visuospatial cognition are observed with as little as 10 h of video game training (Feng et al., 2007; Green & Bavalier, 2003). These findings have led to the suggestion that video gamesmay provide an effective therapeutic platform in individuals and groups that possess lower levels of visuospatial abilities (Belchior, 2007; Green & Bavalier, 2006).

Just a bit from their introduction...they're not supporting that video games are all bad; they're just looking into one of many areas that video games affect.

Proactive control represents a future-oriented form of regulation that serves to bias the information-processing system before the onset of a critical stimulus. In contrast, reactive control represents a just-in-time form of regulation that is implemented when conflict or ambiguity arises within the information processing system (Braver et al., 2007).

This just outlines the difference between proactive control and reactive control.

these data may indicate that the video game experience is associated with a decrease in the efficiency of proactive cognitive control that supports one's ability to maintain goal-directed action when the environment is not intrinsically engaging.

Basically sums up their findings overall, short and sweet.

... high levels of video game experience may be associated with a reduction in the efficiency of processes supporting proactive cognitive control that allow one to maintain goal-directed information processing in contexts that do not naturally hold one's attention. Additional research on a broader range of attention and cognitive control tasks will not only improve our understanding of attention and cognitive control, but will also help move the debate beyond the simple ''video games are good'' versus ''video games are bad'' dichotomy (cf. Gentile & Stone, 2005).

And this was the actual conclusion, just to be completely thorough. I also like that they're not trying to establish a dichotomy, but move beyond it instead.

So, an interesting article, and it seems like the idea is pretty sound, although they did admit to a few limitations. They seemed rather minor to me, though. The question I have now is: how can I train my brain to be able to do these things? :lol:

 

[borrofburi]

I get doing something, and focus on it so much, I forget about other things I should be doing

I am fairly certain that is *not* OCD, instead I believe the clinical description of such a state is "mania", like the mania manic depressives experience (i.e. bipolar). Not that it's an indication you are one, I'm just saying, what you are describing isn't OCD, it's mania.

 

[Marcus]

According to a research of the Iowa State University there is a clear connection dispayed between extensive game-playing and ADD.

During the study researches have measured both proactive and reactive brainactivity of the guinneepigs.

People are missing the point. They managed to train guinea pigs to play computer games! That's a major achievement in itself! :lol:

 

[nemesiss]

I would want to see how big their sample was and what other factors were considered. I'd also like to see what kind of explanation they have for the causal link, since correlation doesn't mean causation every time. I'm sceptical because in the past, I gamed for way more than four hours a day, and I tend much more towards OCD over ADD. I get doing something, and focus on it so much, I forget about other things I should be doing; I don't constantly get distracted. I could just be an exception, but it just seems like the skills used in video games would teach you to stay focused on a goal over a long period of time.

i tend to lean towards OCD too.
perhaps this has to do with the type of games we play.
im quite fond of puzzle games and RPG,´s

also, what another research has noticed is the behavior of (young) people and the way they drive a car.
People who play race games accesive tend to drive more reckless then those who play occasionally or not.
that to me sounds plausible.

According to a research of the Iowa State University there is a clear connection dispayed between extensive game-playing and ADD.

During the study researches have measured both proactive and reactive brainactivity of the guinneepigs.

People are missing the point. They managed to train guinea pigs to play computer games! That's a major achievement in itself! :lol:

+1 kudo for you for taking a point too serious and make it humor.

 

[borrofburi]

I would want to see how big their sample was and what other factors were considered. I'd also like to see what kind of explanation they have for the causal link, since correlation doesn't mean causation every time. I'm sceptical because in the past, I gamed for way more than four hours a day, and I tend much more towards OCD over ADD. I get doing something, and focus on it so much, I forget about other things I should be doing; I don't constantly get distracted. I could just be an exception, but it just seems like the skills used in video games would teach you to stay focused on a goal over a long period of time.

i tend to lean towards OCD too.

What Nogre described is NOT OCD, it is mania.