For Males, Video Game Rewards Are All in the Mind

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, February 8, 2008; 10:00 AM

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- If you're a video game "widow," science might now be able to tell you why.

New research from Stanford scientists shows that the part of the brain associated with reward and addiction was more activated in males than in females when both genders played a game whose object was to acquire more territory.

In other words, the game was more rewarding for males, who were therefore more motivated to succeed.

The findings could have implications beyond the video screen and console, offering insights into what motivates human behavior.

"It's my sense that the results really do open a fascinating realm of future investigations," said Dr. Kathryn J. Kotrla, chairwoman of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock. "These investigations allow one to visualize literally the reward that different individuals experience."

"It would be fascinating either to determine what motivates women more than men or, within a specific gender, to look at the range of motivations and rewards for different variables," she added. "The study itself is looking at gaining territory but one could imagine studies that dealt with attachment or caring for others, so it really opens the door to a wide range of extremely interesting questions about human motivation."

According to background information in the study, which was recently published online in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, more than 230 million video and computer games were sold in 2005.

"Forty percent of Americans play video games, and men are two to three times more likely to feel addicted," said study author Dr. Fumiko Hoeft, senior research scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine. "It seems like an international phenomenon, but no one has looked at how the brain responds."

For the study, 22 Stanford undergraduates (half of them men and half women) were recruited to play a video game designed by the study authors. The game purposely dealt with territoriality, as men are known to be more territorial than women, Hoeft said.