Vandaag opvallende kop in het Nieuwsblad: Gamers hebben hersenen als verslaafden. Dit slaat op een onderzoek dat net gepubliceerd werd in Translational Psychiatry en waar tal van onderzoekers aan meewerkten, waaronder Simone Kühn van de Universiteit Gent.

Het leuke is dat het hele artikel gratis te lezen is op de site van het tijdschrift. Dit is het abstract:

Video game playing is a frequent recreational activity. Previous studies have reported an involvement of dopamine-related ventral striatum. However, structural brain correlates of video game playing have not been investigated. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 154 14-year-olds, we computed voxel-based morphometry to explore differences between frequent and infrequent video game players. Moreover, we assessed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task during functional magnetic resonance imaging and the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT). We found higher left striatal grey matter volume when comparing frequent against infrequent video game players that was negatively correlated with deliberation time in CGT. Within the same region, we found an activity difference in MID task: frequent compared with infrequent video game players showed enhanced activity during feedback of loss compared with no loss. This activity was likewise negatively correlated with deliberation time. The association of video game playing with higher left ventral striatum volume could reflect altered reward processing and represent adaptive neural plasticity.

De uitspraak over verslaving blijkt genuanceerd:

These striatum-associated findings in healthy subjects are in line with the clinical observation that dopaminergic medication in Parkinson’s patients can lead to pathological gambling and other addictive behaviour such as binge eating and hypersexuality.⁸ Greater dopamine release in the ventral striatum has been shown in Parkinson’s patients with addiction, obsession and gambling compared with Parkinson’s patients without these symptoms.⁹ These findings identify striatal function driven by dopamine as a core candidate promoting addictive behaviour. Of note, it has recently been demonstrated that pathological gamblers have an increased striatal dopamine release while loosing money,¹⁰ a biological signal that may hinder the termination of gambling.

De onderzoekers vermoeden zelfs dat games eventueel kunnen helpen:

Although we did not explicitly explore differences between pathological and non-pathological gaming, volumetric differences in the striatum have previously been associated with addiction to drugs, such as cocaine,²² metamphetamine²³ and alcohol.²⁴ However, the direction of the reported differences is not unequivocal; some studies report addiction associated increases others report reductions of the striatal volume most likely due to neurotoxic effects of some drugs of abuse.²⁴ If the striatal differences observed in the current study are indeed an effect of gaming, video gaming might pose an interesting option to explore structural changes in addiction in future studies in the absence of any neurotoxic substances.

Causaliteit of correlatie? De onderzoekers weten niet of het vele gamen de hersenen verandert, of dat juist het overactieve beloningscentrum leidt tot excessief gamen.