YOUNGSTERS who play video games for more than 12 hours a week risk altering the structure of their brains, a Belgian study claimed.
Researchers from the University of Ghent found that teenagers who spend hours gaming have more gray matter in the brain’s pleasure center, known as the ventral striatum.
They studied 154 14-year-olds, with half the group used to playing video games for at least 12 hours a week and a control group composed of occasional gamers.
While the brain differences seen in the frequent gamers were consistent with those seen in the brains of people addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling, the scientists said the scans also showed differences in the frontal lobe that would normally be linked to improvements in brain function.
Categories: Science