title: Increased oscillatory theta activation evoked by violent digital game events.
abstract: The authors examined electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillatory responses to two violent events, the player character wounding and killing an opponent character with a gun, in the digital game James Bond 007: NightFire. EEG was recorded from 25 (16 male) right-handed healthy young adults. EEG data were segmented into one 1-s baseline epoch before each event and two 1-s epochs after event onset. Power estimates (microV(2)) were derived with the fast Fourier transform (FFT) for each artefact free event. Both of the studied events evoked increased occipital theta (4-6Hz) responses as compared to the pre-event baseline. The wounding event evoked also increased occipital high theta (6-8Hz) response and the killing event evoked low alpha (8-10Hz) asymmetry over the central electrodes, both relative to the pre-event baseline. The results are discussed in light of facial electromyographic and electrodermal activity responses evoked by these same events, and it is suggested that the reported EEG responses may be attributable to affective processes related to these violent game events.
authors.affiliation: Helsinki School of Economics, Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research, P.O. Box 1210 (Fredrikinkatu 48 A 9th floor), FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland. mikko.salminen@hse.fi
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salminen
authors.forename: Niklas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ravaja
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013826:Theta Rhythm; D018910:Video Games / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*