Poster A107, Saturday, March 24, 1:30–3:30 pm, Exhibit Hall C
Effects of video games on reward-processing; an fMRI study
David Raymond1, Kelsey Prena1, Josh Brown1, Sharlene D. Newman1; 1Indiana University Bloomington
There is some suggestion that heavy video game playing has a similar impact on the reward network and risk-taking behaviors as drug addiction (Gleich et al., 2017). The current study investigated the functional and behavioral performance of avid video gamers on a gambling task and contrasted those results with those of individuals who play little to no video games. This study used task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging with the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Participants were right-handed males (mean age=21.75). The fMRI data show that unlike in drug addiction, gamers have increased activation compared to controls in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and in the ventral striatum, regions associated with risk-taking and reward processing. Increases in ventral striatum activation have been associated with learning how to manipulate behavior within video games (Erickson et al., 2010). This increase of activation in the reward network in gamers has been linked to players anticipating that their behavior will lead to reward. These findings suggest that neurological changes caused by gaming enable greater striatal response in anticipation of reward. Erikson, K. I., Boot, W. R., Basak, C., Neider, M. B., Prakash, R. S., Voss, M. W., …Kramer, A. F. (2010). Striatal volume predicts level of video game skill acquisition. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 2522-2530. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp293 Gleich, T., Lorenz, R. C., Gallinat, J., & Kühn, S. (2017). Functional changes in the reward circuit in response to gaming-related cues after training with a commercial video game. NeuroImage, 152, 467-475. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.03.032
Topic Area: THINKING: Decision making
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