Video games dulling the brain?

A recent study in Japan has suggested that extensive amounts of time spent playing video games can cause players to lose concentration, get angry easily, and have trouble interacting with others, according to a report in the Mainichi Daily News.

The study was conducted by Akio Mori, a professor at Nihon University, and it included 240 people between the ages of 6 and 29. Mori analyzed the subjects' brain waves and separated them into beta waves, which indicate activity in the prefrontal region of the brain, and alpha waves, which appear when the brain is resting. The study found that those who rarely played video games had stronger beta waves, while those who spent between two and seven hours each day playing games had extremely weak beta waves, even while not playing games. Many of the participants in the group who played the most video games told researchers that they had trouble associating with friends, were easily angered, and couldn't concentrate.

No specific games, types of games, or game systems were mentioned in the report. The results of the research will be formally announced in the US this fall at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Another study was conducted last year at Tohoku University in Japan that suggested that criticized for its limited focus by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association.