The increasingly widespread use of computers in their work, hobbies such as games and activities on social networking sites are one of the causes major epidemic of obesity that is lashing the developed countries. But not for physical inactivity - or at least not only - but the effects of computers on the brain. Supports the prestigious Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest academy of public scientific research in the world.
Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, argues that the constant use of computers 'infantile' the brain making it more difficult to learn to overcome difficulties and mistakes: "When a child falls from a tree, learned to not repeat the mistake, and if a mistake during a game, simply continue a giocare. La parte del cervello coinvolta nell’attenzione, nell’empatia e nell’immaginazione – la corteccia pre-frontale – potrebbe non svilupparsi correttamente nei bambini troppo informatici” minaccia la Greenfield. “E poiché negli obesi questa zona cerebrale è spesso poco attiva, il legame tra uso eccessivo del computer e obesità potrebbe essere a livello cerebrale, producendo meno percezione del rischio, più abuso di junk-food e stili di vita poco salutari(1)”. Un nuovo studio pubblicato da un professore di psicologia statunitense pone l'accento su quello che ritiene essere un vero e proprio profilo clinico: quello del gamer patologico. La ricerca è stata effettuata presso il “National Institute on Media and the Family "and decreed that at least one in ten respondents has actual pathological symptoms that go far beyond simple addiction, coming to radically change the individual and social, and character. The study, carried out by analyzing the responses from 1,178 young people aged between 8 and 18 years, identified a rate equal to 8.5% of respondents as pathological gamers, "that is six victims of pathological symptoms reported by the DSM II These are: relevance (the activity tends to dominate the video game's life), euphoria (relief act videogame that allows you to set aside unpleasant feelings), tolerance (the extension also in intensity of the experience over time), abstinence (the individual tends to be restless or dissatisfied if he can not play), conflict (the activity tends to be in conflict with everyday activities such as studying, interpersonal relationships) and, Finally, reticence (the pathological gamers tend to keep playing even in the presence of explicit prohibitions of self-imposed abstinence). Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University who led the study, said: "
Dependence on video games can be a real form that causes damage to the pathological features of the individual." As for benefits, the studies are still on High Tech the beginning and need further confirmation. For example, we recently developed a new software rehabilitation for people affected by brain lesions called COG.ITO, funded by Fondazione CRT, promoted by Fondazione Onlus ASPHI and designed by neuropsychologists and speech therapists Presidium Health San Camillo di Torino. The software, introduced for the first time in Italy 15 October 2009, at Beyond Paralympics, the week commissioned by Fondazione CRT to talk, discuss, propose initiatives to support people with disabilities, is available free of charge and open source distributed copyleft licensed, downloaded from the website.
In a special issue of the journal CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking ", several studies have been published on the use of virtual reality as a therapy to remove the scars of psychological trauma - for example, the traumatic effects of an earthquake. "Virtual reality," said Brenda Wiederhold, director of the magazine, "immerses the patient who suffers from post-traumatic stress in a fictional world where the person lives in a controlled trauma. Virtual stimuli reminiscent of the traumatic event in which the patient and 'got caught up to the individual, perhaps acting through his avatar, learn to not associate those stimuli with something more frightening and anxiety, managing to break free fear in the real world. "COSPATIAL" just started a European project, coordinated by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, dedicated to the development of collaborative technologies for the promotion of social skills by children with typical development or autism, are trying to create technological tools to foster the development of communication skills in children and contribute to the cognitive and social development in general, coming in particular to meet the high expectations of parents of autistic children. In particular, COSPATIAL be directed toward two types of technologies that previous studies have shown good potential in improving social skills: collaborative virtual environments and shared active surfaces.
(1) F. Macrae 'Do you have Facebook flab? Computer Use Could make you eat too much, Professor Warns'. Daily Mail 15/05/2009.
