February 2009 Archives

Magnificent Mind at Any Age by Daniel G Amen, M.D. (Harmony Books: New York, 2008)

Developing a healthy brain is really what it's all about: "how you think, how you feel, how you interact with others and how well you succeed in realizing your goal and dreams" depends on a healthy brain.

What about the impact of video games on our brains:

"The constant use of video games, so common among our children, teens, and young adults, is another potentially serious source of the problem. Many people play for hours at a time, to the detriment of their responsibilities, and some even go through withdrawal symptoms when they are not allow to play or stop. A brain imaging study published in the journal Nature helps to explain why. While a group of people played action video games, researchers took positron emission tomography scans to see which parts of the brain video games activated. They saw increased activity in the basal ganglia, where dopamine works. Other researchers have discovered that cocaine and methamphetamine also work in this part of the brain. Video games bring pleasure and focus by increasing dopamine. The problem is that the more dopamine released during video games, the less that is available later on to do regular life tasks, such as schoolwork, homework, or chores." (Amen, p. 212)