Science Says: You're Sad And You Suck At Gaming
The world isn't just swarming with opportunities for me to combine my genuine love of all things neurological and cognitive-sciencey with gaming news, so forgive me if I geek out faster than a temporal lobe seizure causing sudden, extremely violent behavior. Please. Ahem.
Scientists who had tried and failed to link two-dimensional visual memory to depression have had success, recently, by testing three-dimensional spatial memory instead. Spacial memory, which coordinates the orientation of things as they relate to each other in physical space, is rooted in the hippocampus - which is essentially the Grand Central Station of the brain's memory processes.
While other studies have shown that individuals with mood disorders tend to have smaller hippocampi than their buoyant counterparts, and that depressed people tend to have problems with memory, University College of London scientists are now using gaming technology to measure the spacial memory performance of the depressed. And the results, while in line with previous research, yield some more gamer-specific data: depressed people performed poorly on the virtual reality game used in the study.
This suggests a defect or deficit of some kind in the hippocampus, but it's also a dire warning for gamers: treat your mental health seriously or suffer the consequences! What's the cost of a little therapy compared to the cost of losing your game, brother? Better stock up on the St. John's Wort...
Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area [Science Daily]
[via Slashdot]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 2 March 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: depression, virtual reality
And better practice some voodoo while you're at it too. It should be just about as effective.
Sorry, the whole 'herbal medication' thing gets on my nerves, as a lot of times stuff like that is simply a very expensive placebo.
Thanks for the interesting post!