Video games and boys
I have been reading this book that I am very excited about. I can’t seam to put it down once I start reading. I missed my train stop today because I was so enamored by the teachings. I am going to share a couple of paragraphs because I think everyone should read this book, and we need to rethink our lifestyles. We are losing a lot of young men because of these factors Dr. Sax has wrote about and it is time we stand for the future.“New research suggests that video games may also affect the brain in ways that compromise motivation. The nucleus accumbens operates in balance with another area of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The nucleus accumbens is responsible for channeling drive and motivation, and gives the drive a rewarding character. The DLPFC provides a target and a contest drive. Both of these areas of the brain need to be working properly in order for a person to be motivated, and working toward a real-world goal.
A recent brain imaging study of boys between the ages of seven and fourteen years found that playing video games puts this system seriously out of kilter. It seems to shut off blood flow to the DLPFC. IN other words, playing these games engorges the nucleus accumbens with blood, while diverting blood away from the balancing area of the brain. The net result is that playing video games gives boys the reward associated with achieving a great objective, but without any connection to the real world, without any sense of a need to contextualize the story.
In other words, video games may affect the brain in children in much the same way that medications like Ritalin and Adderall and Concerta do. Curiously, this point is not disputed even by the most ardent advocates of video games. In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson noted that research on video games suggests that these games stimulate “a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens” in much the same way the crack cocaine affects the same area.”This is from the book “boys adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” by Leonard Sax. M.D., PhD.
