一个国际研究小组11月15日在英国《转化精神病学》（Translational Psychiatry ）期刊上报告说，对一些常玩电脑游戏的青少年大脑进行扫描发现，他们的大脑结构与其他青少年相比有所不同。
比利时、德国、英国等国研究人员共同完成的这项报告说，他们把154名14岁青少年分为两组，其中一组青少年每周玩电脑游戏超过9个小时，即“频繁玩家”；另外一组玩电脑游戏较少。
利用磁共振成像技术进行的大脑扫描显示，“频繁玩家”大脑中的“腹侧纹状体”比其他人要大。“腹侧纹状体”被称为大脑的“激励中心”，与奖励反馈有关，常常在人们得到外界回报时发挥作用，比如赌博赢钱或享受美食的时候。
对这种现象背后的因果关系，研究人员表示暂不清楚，可能是长期玩电脑游戏导致了大脑结构的变化，也可能是大脑结构不同导致部分人更喜欢玩电脑游戏。
比利时根特大学研究人员西蒙·库恩说，他们计划请一些没有玩过电脑游戏的成年人参与下一步试验，扫描他们游戏前后的大脑结构，以确定玩电脑游戏是否会导致大脑结构发生变化。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1038/tp.2011.53
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The neural basis of video gaming
S K|[uuml]|hn, A Romanowski, C Schilling, R Lorenz, C M|[ouml]|rsen, N Seiferth, T Banaschewski, A Barbot, G J Barker, C B|[uuml]|chel, P J Conrod, J W Dalley, H Flor, H Garavan, B Ittermann, K Mann, J-L Martinot, T Paus, M Rietschel, M N Smolka, A Str|[ouml]|hle, B Walaszek, G Schumann, A Heinz, J Gallinat.
Video game playing is a frequent recreational activity. Previous studies have reported an involvement of dopamine-related ventral striatum. However, structural brain correlates of video game playing have not been investigated. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 154 14-year-olds, we computed voxel-based morphometry to explore differences between frequent and infrequent video game players. Moreover, we assessed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task during functional magnetic resonance imaging and the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT). We found higher left striatal grey matter volume when comparing frequent against infrequent video game players that was negatively correlated with deliberation time in CGT. Within the same region, we found an activity difference in MID task: frequent compared with infrequent video game players showed enhanced activity during feedback of loss compared with no loss. This activity was likewise negatively correlated with deliberation time. The association of video game playing with higher left ventral striatum volume could reflect altered reward processing and represent adaptive neural plasticity.
