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When a teenager plays a combat, shooting, or wrestling video game, there is an activation of the cognitive area dedicated to thinking that manages motor skills and strategy, and especially an inhibition of areas related to emotions such as the anterior cingulate cortex (a structure that allows arbitration between thought and emotion) or the amygdala complex, which triggers the sensation of fear.
The player's brain is entirely focused on the game's outcome while trying to kill as many enemies as possible. The area of the brain corresponding to compassion and fear is then inhibited. Therefore, one might think that the brain learns to become impermeable to feelings.
Young people who engage in first-person shooter video games will not all become violent, but for teenagers who already have aggressive tendencies, virtual combat is likely to exacerbate this type of behavior.
Other studies, reported by the magazine Science et Avenir, conclude similarly. "Yes, all scientific data converge!", affirms Laurent Bègue, professor of social psychology at the University of Grenoble-II, author of several synthesis works on violence.
John Murray, from the University of Kansas (United States), observed in MRI that violent images provoke in young people (aged 9 to 13) the activation of a brain network involved in the fear reflex, as well as the motor cortex, preparing for retaliation.
According to the researcher from the University of Michigan (United States), violent video games also lead, in subjects aged 18 to 26, to a dichotomy (division) between emotion and thought that desensitizes the player.
The same response from Bruce Bartholow, from the University of Missouri-Columbia, who analyzed the electroencephalogram of different players. The emissions of P300 brain waves, which normally accompany individuals' aversion reactions to aggressive scenes, tend to decrease in fans of violent games.
Finally, Christopher Kelly, from Columbia University in New York, demonstrates that repeated exposure to virtual violence decreases the brain's control over aggressive behaviors.
The argument often put forward to defend and promote violent films or games, whose interest would be to purge aggressive impulses, seems to have "lived". Let's hope so, anyway! Because in reality, they cause exactly the opposite effect.
In the same article from the magazine Science et Avenir, Laurent Bègue continues: "Video game manufacturers, on the other hand, minimize this data. A bit like the tobacco industry in the past. They stigmatize certain at-risk profiles to divert attention. Whereas everyone is concerned.
In the game "Grand Theft Auto IV," you can frequent a prostitute, then kill her and get your money back... Society must ask itself if it agrees that its citizens spend their free time mimicking such criminal actions, while content could promote altruistic behaviors, for example."
According to Professor José Sanmartin, the images that surround us can influence our brain by configuring it in a certain way. When we watch violent images, certain neural circuits in our brain take precedence over others, which explains why we can be influenced by this violence. It is the social and environmental context of the person that determines the impact of these images on their brain.
The same goes for when a person gets into the habit of expressing their aggressiveness by hitting a pillow, for example, supposedly to release their anger. If they do it regularly and enjoy it, then in reality, they will only worsen their state.
In view of all this eminently serious research, ignoring the link between virtual violence (video films, etc.) and real violence under the pretext of venting, entertainment, or games seems to be a risky attitude!
It is probably at this level, AS WELL AS THAT OF UNBALANCED AND DENATURED NUTRITION, that it is possible to find a beginning of an explanation for the current violence, increasingly present and spectacular in our societies in general and among young people in particular.
When accompanied by a certain philosophy, ethics, and respect for others, combat sports like karate can, however, channel aggressiveness, as they help to build self-confidence and develop physically.
The brain of an adolescent does not react like that of an adult when faced with risk.
James Bjork had 20 adolescents (12-17 years old) and 20 adults (23-33 years old) play a money game involving possibilities of gains and risks of losses. In the case of moderate risk, adults activate an important area of the frontal cortex during their decision-making, which allows them to evaluate the possibilities of gain and the risks involved. The adolescent, on the other hand, activates nothing at all. The potential risk must be high, like that of losing everything, for their brain to finally start activating this area.
"Adolescence is the period of maturation of the brain's motivation and reward circuit, which results in the search for strong sensations and risk-taking," explains Dr. Michel Reynaud.
In this search for strong experiences, drugs and alcohol are often involved, and they can severely impair brain functions and promote violent behaviors.
It is desirable to consider this article not as a condemnation of video games in general, but rather as an opportunity to become aware of the need to pay attention to the quality of the videos or video games that one may watch.
Indeed, the quality of our spiritual nourishment (reading, videos, films, etc.) is as important for our health and balance as the quality of our physical nourishment.
