玩遊戲上癮者大腦或存在生理差異

周焯華-玩遊戲上癮者大腦或存在生理差異-洗米華

譯文： 　　A study by an international research team has shown a correlation between frequent gaming and a greater volume of grey matter in a part of the brain linked to an internal reward system associated with addiction. Take a few minutes to parse that sentence, I’ll wait. The study, published today in Nature’s Translational Psychiatry journal, describes the analysis of fMRI scans of 154 14-year-old gamers. They found that the ventral striatum, part of the dopamine system and implicated previously in addiction studies, was larger in gamers who played more frequently, though the data was strictly correlative and should not be taken as evidence of causality. 　　It’s worth considering for a moment because studies like this always end up hitting network news after a day or two, with ridiculous simplifications and ominous speculations. Are Violent Video Games Literally Warping Our Children’s Brains? Find out — after this message! 　　In fact, a quick search shows that the Reuters report （which, I should say, is not actually inflammatory） has already propagated to a number of networks and AP outlets. None of them link to the actual paper, though, which can be found here. 　　The study is really quite straightforward, comparing the structural and behavioral differences between two groups: frequent and infrequent gamers. The results show that frequent gamers have a larger volume of cortex in their left ventral striatal cortex, that they showed less deliberation in making choices in the gambling game they played, and that there was more brain activity corresponding to wins and losses. 　　The natural way to spin the story is to say that playing games has affected the brain, though there is no evidence this is the case. In fact, the reverse is more logical: people predisposed to addiction are more likely to participate in potentially addictive activities. This puts video game addiction in the same category as other, more widely-recognized addictions. Comorbidity with social and anxiety disorders. 　　Studies like this are a great way to attack technology and services. Twitter use, for example, almost certainly correlates to people with shorter attention spans. Causality? Undetermined, but it’s convenient to argue that Twitter use enables that short attention span. The implication is that these people should be doing things that combat that short attention span, but this ignores so many other variables （total engagement, social trends, improvement in multitasking ability, etc） that it’s easily recognizable as wishful thinking. 　　With games the market is getting large and mainstream enough that the doomsaying of early days has been conclusively proven wrong, but the topic, despite being a multi-billion dollar market comprising some of the most interesting and powerful companies in the world, remains incendiary. Be on the lookout for FUD, and value research like this for what they are: small steps towards understanding the relationship between behavior and physiology, not to be used as planks in anyone’s anti- or pro-gaming platform. 　　一個國際研究小組的研究表明，人的大腦中因為遊戲上癮而變大的灰色物質的大小與打遊戲的頻率存在某種關聯。我們來花幾分鐘時間來看看這段話。這項研究成果發表在今天出版的自然轉移精神病學雜志上，對154名14歲的打遊戲少年的核磁共振掃描圖像進行瞭分析。研究人員發現，腹側紋狀體的多巴胺系統的一部分，與以前打遊戲成癮存在一定不想，打遊戲頻率高的人這一部分比常人朋，盡管這些數據是嚴格相關的，但不應當作為證據。 　　我們需要考慮一下這個問題，因這類引人發笑的、僅僅是猜測的新聞，在網上出現一兩天後就會消失瞭。暴力的視頻遊戲會使用我們孩的大腦發生變化嗎？看一看這篇文章，你就會有所瞭解。 　　實際上，在網上進行快速的搜索顯示，路透社的這篇報道（我應該說，這篇報道並不帶煽動性）已經上傳到幾個網絡上和美聯社的網站上瞭。雖然它可以在這兒看到，其實並沒有印刷版。 　　實際上，這項研究非常簡單，它隻是把經常打遊戲的人和不經常打遊戲的大腦結構和行為差異進行瞭對比。結果表明，經常打遊戲人的左側腹側紋狀皮質較大，這表明他們在打遊戲時處於緊張狀態，大腦始終在關註著遊戲的勝負。 　　用通俗的語言來講，打遊戲已經影響瞭人的大腦，雖然沒有證據說明這件事情。實際上，從反面來講，這一點更具邏輯性：打遊戲易成癮的人更喜歡打遊戲。這使得視頻遊戲成癮同其它遊戲一樣，使人很容易上癮。這屬於社會與焦慮癥的合並癥狀。 　　此類研究是對網絡技術和服務的一種攻擊。可以肯定地推斷推客（Twitter）的使用者也是如此。它們之間存在必然關系嗎？仍未確定，但很容易地使用人認為，使用推客（Twitter）的人註意力非常短。這項研究預示著這些人應做一些需要短時間專註的事情，但它忽略瞭其它因素（總的接觸時間，社會趨勢，多任務處理能力的提高），這項研究隻是從單方面進行推測。 　　隨著遊戲市場的不斷增大和成為主流，早期人們對遊戲厄運說的提法被證明是錯誤的。但關於這個話題，盡管有一個多億美元的市場，包括世界上最有趣和最有實力的公司，這項研究仍具煽動性。從平常的角度來看一看這類研究的意義：向行為與生理之間的關系研究邁出瞭一小步，但請不要用於任何人反對或支持遊戲。 Tags:周焯華,洗米華