This Is Your Child’s Brain on Videogames | WSJ

Perhaps you’ve seen videos like this appear in your social media feeds lately the concept is pretty simple parents prank their kids by unplugging the child’s video game console in the middle of gameplay and their reactions are viral gold no one likes to be forced to stop having fun but something different is happening

Here if you were to take away a child’s books or legos you’re not likely to get a reaction like this so what’s going on here why are these meltdowns so dramatic I’ve treated a number of children over years who struggle with problematic video game behaviors i think one of the most important things to keep in mind is that the child will be able to tell you i’m trying to not do this but i can’t stop

And i can’t get myself to stop i don’t want to behave this way but i’m struggling why did you do that that was my game to get into the overwatch league according to dr milham these reactions aren’t necessarily because of an addiction to gaming instead what we

Witness in these videos are children who are victims of their own biology being able to tolerate the feeling of frustration or that moment of sadness when you decide i’m not going to continue doing this that is is crucial one of the reasons the children in these videos find it so hard to control

Themselves is because they don’t yet have a fully developed prefrontal cortex the prefrontal cortex is a key component in the brain that’s involved in helping us to control impulses and urges when you have something like the video game being turned off suddenly the child is faced with having to feel those negative emotions

Another factor is dopamine which is often referred to as the brain’s pleasure chemical because it’s associated with feelings of euphoria motivation and concentration dopamine is a key component of regulating reward mechanisms in the brain the stimulation we receive from playing a video game impacts the same pathways that are present when one is

Becoming intoxicated with a substance so it’s no surprise that many of the behaviors and reactions that we see for a child who’s struggling with having this sudden stop brought about in their video game playing it has analogs to someone who is being asked to stop usage of a substance

Let’s say a child is about to eat a piece of candy the anticipation of eating that candy gives the child a spike of dopamine then their parent yanks that candy away from them that action will cause a drop in dopamine which will upset the child video game designers have gotten

Remarkably adept at keeping gamers entranced with a steady source of intermittent rewards more rewards means a constant stream of dopamine released into the brain throughout gameplay so when a parent pulls the plug on a child’s video game there’s an even more powerful effect video games are inherently designed to

Be stimulating and exciting and to draw us in and and that to some degree is a healthy phenomena it’s just that for some it’s more difficult to control than than for others is the video game somehow impairing their ability to function in the home at school or with other children

If we’re not seeing any problematic behaviors and it’s just concerned about the frequency then i think we can work on just trying to bring the frequency down for many households across the country meltdowns over video games are a very real part of everyday life parents we have spoken with say they

Find themselves in a battle of wills with their children when they tell them to turn off a video game and do homework eat dinner or go to bed dr milham recommends implementing two basic rules number one establish clear and consistent rules about the days and time of gameplay

Number two enforce a transition period between gameplay and bedtime dr milham also recommends that parents be wary of an underlying problem games may just be a coping mechanism one of the most important things is to really curb the video game playing and monitor it and put interventions in place before

It’s a problem once the video game playing becomes a problem at that point the parents will probably need to seek guidance from whether it be therapists counselors or other care providers in order to help deal to assess and deal with the challenges at hand Mom now i have to do it all over