When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced legislation to helpkeep violent and graphic video games out of the hands of children,she cited a “groundbreaking new study by researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine” to support her position.
In July, Clinton called on the Federal Trade Commission to takeimmediate action investigating the release of sexually explicitcontent linked to the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas .The content may be unlocked using a program now widely accessibleon the Internet. She also announced legislation to stiffen enforcementof video game ratings with financial penalties for vendors whosell games rated Mature or Adults Only to minors. (The game'srating was subsequently changed, several major retailers stoppedselling the game, and the game's manufacturer said it would stopmaking the current version.)
To buttress her call for tighter controls, Clinton cited ongoingresearch being conducted by William Kronenberger, associate professorof psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine; VincentMathews,IUSM professor of radiology; and several of their IUSM colleagues.
In May, Mathews, Kronenberger, and others published a studyof connections between media violence exposure, brain functioning,and aggression in adolescents. The study involved groups of normalteens and teens diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD)who had chronic patterns of aggression. Both groups performeda concentration test while also undergoing functional magneticresource imaging (fMRI) of the brain.
Mathews and his colleagues found that the teens who had higherprior exposure to violent media (TV or video games depictinghuman injury) showed reduced activity in the frontal lobe oftheir brains, an area linked to attention, decision-making, andself-control. All of the teens in the disruptive behavior disorder/aggressiongroup, even those without high exposure, showed a similar patternof reduced frontal cortex activity. But the control group ofteens without high exposure to violent media showed more frontalcortex activity.
“This is the first demonstration of differences in brain functionbeing associated with media violence exposure,” Mathews says. “Individualsin the group with high media violence exposure showed a brainactivation pattern similar to the aggressive group.”
Kronenberger, Mathews, and others published another study inJune that again showed significant relationships between higheramounts of violent TV and video game exposure and poorer “executivefunctioning,” the ability of a person to control, direct, plan,and execute his or her thoughts and behaviors.
Adolescents in the study fell into two groups: those with DBDand those with no psychiatric diagnosis.
Based on interviews and questionnaires about violent media exposureas well as psychological tests measuring concentration and self-control,the study revealed that greater media violence exposure was linkedto weaker self-control. “Adolescents in the study with the mostmedia violence exposure had the weakest executive functioning,” saysKronenberger, adding that “for one measure, a stronger relationshipwas found for teens who had a diagnosis of disruptive behaviordisorder.”
Mathews and Kronenberger stress that while their studies showcorrelations, they do not pinpoint causes. It may be that teenswith poor executive functioning skills seek out violent mediaor that exposure to violent media reduces executive functioningskills, or that other variables are at work, too.
Although the research, funded by the Center for Successful Parenting,is preliminary, Sen. Clinton acknowledged the IUSM work as “evidencethat confirms the potentially damaging impact of [violent] gameson children.”
“So many parents feel everyday like they are fighting this battlewith their hands tied behind their backs,” said Clinton in anews release about her legislation. “We need to do better.”
