Video Game Addiction: What Can We Learn From a Media Neuroscience Perspective?

• In Event: Revisiting the Phenomenon of Game Addiction

Abstract

Video game addiction has received considerable empirical attention. However, the lack of a clear definition and the use of several game addiction scales have led to issues measuring and conceptualizing video game addiction making it difficult to estimate its prevalence and measure its effects. Video games contain structural characteristics that make them unique from other forms of media (including socialization and interactive reward and punishment features), which may contribute to behavioral outcomes such as addiction. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to provide a review of research on video game addiction; (2) to discusses the unique characteristics of video games that are crucial for the conceptualization of video game addiction; (3) to integrate video game addiction within the broader context of behavioral addictions, discussing the neurological foundation of addiction, and (4) to suggest opportunities for media neuroscientists to increase understanding of video game addiction which may lead better diagnostics.

Authors

• Britney Nicole Craighead, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Richard Wayne Huskey, U of California - Santa Barbara

• Rene Weber, U of California - Santa Barbara