The line to see Santa may not be the longest line in the mall this season as more and more kids line up to have first grabs at the new Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.

But with the new market of video game consoles comes with it new studies suggesting the connection of violent video games and aggression in teenagers.

The lead researcher, Dr. Vincent Matthews presented a new study November 28 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, which showed that violent video games might have lingering effects in adolescents’ brains.

“Our study suggests that playing a certain type of violent video game may have different short-term effects on brain function than playing a nonviolent, but exciting game,” Dr. Matthews, the professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine, said.

Dr. Matthews used functional magnetic resonance imaging, which detects the most active areas of the brain metabolically, to record any changes in brain activity in 44 adolescents, aged 13 to 17. They were asked to perform a series of tasks after playing either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes.

The teens that played the violent video games showed more activation in the amygdala, the part of the brain involved in emotional arousal, and less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration than the teens that played the nonviolent game.

Barry Figgins, 25 year-old graduate student and game coordinator of the SF State Gamer’s Club, the Gamer’s Conclave, said that he doesn’t approve of children playing extremely violent video games, like Manhunt or Resident Evil 4.

“I think enjoying those games require an understanding of the context of violence in our society, which children have not fully experienced yet,” Figgins said. “But these games are rated ‘Mature’ by the Entertainment Software Review Board (ESRB), just like violent movies are rated ‘Restricted.’”
David Matsumoto, Professor of Psychology said that humans are biologically built to have certain emotions.

“What you’re seeing is a combination of society encoding certain meanings in these games and personal investment,” Matsumoto said.

Popular this Holiday season, action and horror video games, like Gears of War, Red Steel and Dead Rising all arouse the brain to the point of fight or flight mode.

“When this happens, the heart beats over 100 beats per minutes and adrenaline is secreted,” Health Lecturer, Ivy Chen said. “As a result, the person is in no position to listen or negotiate. Therefore communication in any kind of relationship with someone whose brain has been stimulated into the fight/flight mode is impossible.”

In a statement issued by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), President Douglas Lowenstein said, “We have not seen the study in detail and thus cannot comment on the quality, methodology, or conclusions. We can say we’ve seen other studies in this field that have made dramatic claims but turn out to be less persuasive when objectively analyzed.”

Lowenstein also commented that though the studies suggest that violent games may lead to an increase in aggressive thought, it is a far cry from suggesting that they lead to real world violent behavior, which no study has shown.

“Finally, one wonders: if we’re now regulating the potential for aggressive thought, perhaps we should consider banning kids’ access to professional football,” Lowenstein said.

But unlike professional football or violent films, there is far less interaction.

“One of the major differences between violent movies and video games is the level of interactivity granted by video games,” Chen said. “The player controls the weapon and is rewarded for killing someone. It’s difficult for a human to kill another human, but video simulations desensitize our remorse, reward our killing, and overrides our horror with pleasure.”

According to Figgins the debate over violent video games is an old argument.

“People have been worrying about corrupting the youth since antiquity. I guarantee you, in 40 years, video games will be a part of our culture as much as music or movies and people won’t even remember this current panic,” Figgins said. “We’ll have something new and fancy to be worried about.”