Study: Male Brains Hardwired For Videogame Addiction

Study: Male Brains Hardwired For Videogame Addiction

A new research, published recently in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, suggested that males have a harder time ending their gaming sessions than females.

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine studied functional brain images of 11 males and 11 females while playing a simple videogame.

The Stanford University scientists noticed that while both male and female player picked up the game at an equal pace, male players where more "aggressive" and tended to capture more "territory" on the screen.

The brain images showed increased activity in a brain section associated with reward and addiction in all players. However, this activity was noticeably higher in males than in females.

The reward and addiction brain excitation also increased proportionally with the size of the captured on screen "territory", but only in males.

"These gender differences in the brain may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become hooked on video games than females", said Dr. Allan Reiss, the lead scientist.