HW # 10 Informal Research Project

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1742

The Effect of Video Games On the Brain

This article makes a case about video games as a cause of emotional and agressive behavior while playing the games and suggests that they could cause longer lasting agressive behavior. First the author talks about personally observing two brothers playing a non-violent video game. When the younger kid won, the older kid went crazy and started kicking him. Later the younger was losing playing by himself and started screaming and crying. I'm not sure I would blame this behavior on the video games. These kids might get upset about striking out at baseball or playing miniature golf badly. The article talks about studies that show that playing violent games increases anxiety and hostility. Since studies have shown that violent television can does this, it makes sense that more active involvement in video games would cause more anxiety and hostility. The interesting part of the article talks about a study in Tokyo that showed that people who played video games a lot were showing a decreas of activity in parts of their brains (prefrontal regions) and that the under use of these parts of their brains might be the cause of their agressive behavior and inability to concentrate especially since this lack of brain activity continued after the game playing was over. Then the author asked a question about whether the brain was perceiving the video games as real. There are other studies that show how the cames make blook pressure and heart rate go up the way they do when the body senses danger. People blame listening to violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for agressive behavior because they have the power of suggestion. It seems to me that since playing violent video games involves the players in the dangerous action, they would influence behavior more negatively than the rap songs, the movies, and the televison. Instead of observing, they are doing. I would not be surprised if studies show these games to be dangerous one day. I would rather have my kids play sports game and develop some skills instead of shooting people in games.

http://www.ehso.com/ehsome/cellphonecancer.php


Cell Phones, Cancer and Brain Tumors. What is the Real Story?

This is a fairly long article about whether cell phones can cause brain cancer. Because cell phones give off radiation and radiation can cause cancer with strong doses, there have been news reports and one Swedish study that cell phones could be dangerous if we use them next to our head for long periods of time. The article describes a Japanese study, a Danish study, and a British study that all say cell phones have not been found to cause brain cancer. Also a doctor at Columbia University thinks that the Swedish study was not that accurate because it relied on subjects remembering cell phone use ten years before. The part of the article that describes the kind of radiation cell phones emit seems to give the best evidence about cell phones being safe. It says that cell phone radiation is non-ionizing, meaning that it cannot "be absorbed by tissue and break molecules apart." Ionizing radiation like the kind medical X-rays give off can penetrate tissue and cause cancer. But then the article says that there is a doctor at the University of Washington, who thinks that cell phones could cause benign brain tumors. Having read this article I am not too worried about getting cancer from using my cell phone, but from looking at its radiation chart for electical devices I would definitely not use heating lamps, go into tanning booths (not that I've really been tempted by them) or have too many medical X-rays. I wouldn't stick my head into a microwave oven either.






http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/cellphonecancer.php


British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain

This article had an eye-catching headline, "This is Your Brain. This is your Brain on Facebook. Brain Tumor Specialist-Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NY/NJ can help." The article says that this could be a future ad based on government testimony in England by an Oxford neuroscientist who thinks that online social networking could be dangerous for our brains and behavior. She predicts that "the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short atttention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity." I have to say that my reaction was that this seemed like an extreme view, and I expected that the rest of the article would have scientists who disagreed. I was wrong. A UCLA scientist said that the social network sites carry risks for the brain, and a Stanford University researcher thinks that even if people knew for certain that online social networking was harmful to the brain, they would continue using it. This article is short on real evidence because it does not mention results of any studies. Also the mention of the words "brain tumor," in the headline seems a little sensational since there is not mention specifically of brain tumors being caused by these networking sites. This is ironic since the article is accusing the sites of being sensational. Still the risk of shorter attention spans seems real, and makes me think even more about how we need balance between time on and off the computer.