55
L. R. Huesmann, “Nailing the Coffin Shut On Doubts That Violent Video Games Stimulate
Aggression: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010),”
Psychological Bulletin
136, no. 2 (2010): 2,
doi:10.1037/a0018567.
56
Huesmann, “Coffin,” 2.
15
(ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) to quantify spontaneous brain activity.”
57
The
results indicated that there was no significant difference between the study group, who
played violent video games, and the control group, who did not play a violent video
game.
58
Their study found these results to be relevant “indicating that long time exposure
to violent video games won’t significantly influence spontaneous brain activity, especially
the core brain regions such as execution control, moral judgment and short-term
memory.”
59
This finding implied that the effect of violent video games in other studies
was exaggerated.
60
According to Pan et al., “One can speculate from the above findings that there is no
causal link between violent video games and aggression. This is mainly because the cause
of aggression cannot be simply determined. Many environmental factors, such as childhood
trauma, and family background, contribute to aggression, mutually.”
61
This study is
illuminating in the sense that it is the first study that we have seen to use actual neurological
analysis to attempt to disprove the connection between violent video games and violent
behavior. Other studies have relied on meta-data gathered from large populations, or test
questionnaires that indicate how aggressive a person might be. This one uses actual brain
scanning to demonstrate the brain’s activity while playing violent video games. It is
important to note that their study did contain a view deficiencies. According to Pan et al.,
they include the fact that “our participants are all selected from college, whether our
findings can apply to different groups remains uncertain. What’s more, given the fact that
female violent video game players are quite few, our research target mainly focused on the
males.”
62
All of that being said, this study is unique because of its research method. It
seems much more relevant to analyze the brains activity and use that to determine potential
57
Wei Pan et al., “Spontaneous Brain Activity Did Not Show the Effect of Violent Video Games on
Aggression: A Resting-State fMRI Study,”
Frontiers in Psychology
8 (2018): 2, doi:10.3389/
fpsyg.2017.02219.
58
Pan et al., “Spontaneous Brain Activity,” 2.
59
Pan et al., 2.
60
Pan et al., 3.
61
Pan et al., 4.
62
Pan et al., 4.
16
effects of video games on the brain. As they concluded, Pan et al. say that, “Our results
suggested that there is no strong link between long time exposure to violent video games
and spontaneous brain activity, it didn’t show any neuropsychological evidence of
aggression, but it enhanced our understanding to the relationship between long time
exposure to violent video games and aggression.”
63
In an effort to examine the relationship between violent video games and
aggression, Ferguson et al. conducted two studies. First, “Study 1 participants were either
randomized or allowed to choose to play a violent or nonviolent game. Although males
