Violent games 'affect your brain'

Playing violent computer games can make you care less about violence in real life, according to a study. The experiment was conducted by psychologist Bruce Bartholow from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his colleagues

First of all, researchers watched a group of people playing games with brutal killings and high-powered weapons in them. The second step was to show them photos of real violence and found they were not as shocked as expected. Meanwhile, researchers monitored their brains. Next, the group saw disturbing pictures of things like dead animals and then they were extremely shocked. The scientists recorded how shocked the people were by looking at a certain type of brain activity, which measures how much effect a picture has on the brain. 
People have tried to prove that violent games made people more aggressive in the past. However,  others said it was that more aggressive people simply chose games which were more violent. Professor Bruce Bartholow said: " This is the first study to show that exposure to violent games has effects on the brain that predict aggressive behaviour." 

 Adapted from CBBC NEWSROUND:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4590000/newsid_4598400/4598408.stm 
Published: 2006/01/10 20:19:24 GMT

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