Video Games and The Effect on Empathy and Hippocampus Plasticity

In a study titled "Cool Calloused and in Control:  Superior inhibitory Control of Frequent Players of Video Games with Violent Content", which was conducted by Laura Stockdale and colleagues at Loyola University in Chicago, researchers investigated whether chronic exposure to violent video games had an impact on neural functions that modulate affect and emotion. They compared the results of experiments between chronic violent and nonviolent gamers and found that subjects who played video games that were violent in nature were less empathetic than infrequent players of less violent video games. The studies were conducted by measuring VEP’s (visual evoked potentials). It was found that chronic players of violent video games had less P100 amplitudes evoked upon presentation of happy facial expressions when compared to non violent video gamers, as well as a lower P100 amplitude across valenced stimuli. In contrast, Infrequent players had a higher P100 amplitude in response to happy facial expressions compared to frequent players. The fact that the visual stimuli evoked a lower level of visually evoked potential in frequent players indicates that frequent players attend less to facial expressions compared to infrequent players, who allocate more attentional resources towards processing stimuli that are positive in nature

In the same vein, there there is another study titled “Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus”, which was conducted by G.L. West et al, and published by Molecular Psychiatry. Researchers scanned participants' brains using MRIs, and found that action video game players who spent on average 19 hours a week  playing video games had significantly less gray matter in their hippocampus than non-video game players. This is concerning, as loss in gray matter in the hippocampus is associated with many psychiatric diseases, including Alzheimers. They then conducted an experiment in which they asked non-video game players to spend 90 hours over the course of 10 weeks playing video games. One group was to play 1st person action video games that were violent in nature, while the other group was to play Super Mario games, both in a controlled setting. The results were intriguing. The group who played action video games lost gray matter in their hippocampus, while people who played Super Mario gained gray matter in their hippocampus. West and colleagues speculated that in action video games, there is often an on screen GPS and markers in the scene that help the player navigate, because of this, they are not using their hippocampal memory system to navigate spatially. Instead, their reward system is more activated, so they are using and therefore have more growth in their caudate nucleus. When one system is trained, the other is potentially neglected and shows signs of atrophy.

While these two studies focus on different aspects of brain function when engaging in video games, they both
draw attention to the fact that engagement in video game activity has a direct effect on neural function. More than that, they both underline the fact that the content of visual stimuli determines the manner in which neural function is modulated. In each of the studies, it is clear that there is a difference in neural modulation between the violent versus nonviolent groups. This draws attention to the importance of modulating one's exposure and engagement in visual activity, since the content of what you see or engage in can quite literally have an effect on the manner in which your brain fires. This is an especially important fact to ponder, as people around the world have been sheltering in place due to COVID-19 outbreak, many of whom likely choose to pass time by playing video games. It is not a bad idea to think about the fact that the types of games you choose to engage in could affect your ability to accurately interpret the expressions of those around you as well as causes a physical structural change in your brain that can be detrimental in the future.

Stockdale, Laura et al. “Cool, callous and in control: superior inhibitory control in frequent players of video games with violent content.” Social cognitive and affective neuroscience vol. 12,12 (2017): 1869-1880. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx115

West, G.L., Konishi, K., Diarra, M. et al. Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus. Mol Psychiatry 23, 1566–1574 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.155