The study, so far, proves that teenage brains are very different from adult and child brains.
"Novelty seeking/sensation seeking and risk taking," Dr. [Elizabeth R.] McAnarney continues, "is the basis for considerable [brain] growth during adolescence, as well as for the seemingly reckless behavior of some adolescents. Novelty seeking/sensation seeking and risk taking are topics of growing interest as adolescent brain development is defined better and as morbidity from adolescent risk taking mounts…."But what risk-taking is involved in video gaming? How can Science benefit from kids playing video games? What can be done to increase the brain "morbidity from adolescent risk taking"?
I guess one kid could whale on another kid with a Guitar Hero plastic guitar or a Dance Dance Revolution untied shoelace mishap might cause a brain injury against a TV screen, but for the most part, video games keep kids from taking any risks at all.
Compare to my adolescent non-video-game-playing risk taking:
Dove from roof into pool.
Rocks, baseballs, pool sticks bounced off head.
Shot in forehead, from b-b gun.
Punched.
"Clothelined," forearmed, elbowed during football games.
Crashed bike into both stationary and moving cars.
Jumped off roof onto ground and other kids.
Pushed out of tree.
Fell from top of NY stoop.
Rode bike off increasingly higher ramps, falling often. Upon landing, cracked bike in half, forever changing reproductive ability; all future produced DNA now carries modified gene producing offspring with innate "fear of fractions."
So kids need to stop playing video games and get out of the house and hit each other and jump off tall things and suffer some head trauma. If not simply to keep them from growing up as nerds and dorks, but to advance our understanding of neuroscience.
