ArticleFrontiers in psychology2017
Lack of Evidence That Neural Empathic Responses Are Blunted in Excessive Users of Violent Video Games: An fMRI Study.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review of Gaming and Neuropsychological Assessment of Social Cognition.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- [Neuropsychological effects of playing violent video games].Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2026Review
- The dark sides of the brain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies on trait aggressionAggression and violent behavior · 2025Article
- "Kill the Enemy": Can Violence be Learned in Children by Activating Mirror Neurons Through Video Games?Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2025Article
- The impact of acute violent videogame exposure on neurocognitive markers of empathic concern.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Online Assessment of Social Cognition in a Population of Gamers and Gamblers: Results of the eSMILE Study.Journal of gambling studies · 2023Article
- Desensitized gamers? Violent video game exposure and empathy for pain in adolescents - an ERP study.Social neuroscience · 2023Article
- Article
- Violence in video game produces a lower activation of limbic and temporal areas in response to social inclusion images.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Potential Adverse Effects of Violent Video Gaming: Interpersonal- Affective Traits Are Rather Impaired Than Disinhibition in Young Adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Long-Time Exposure to Violent Video Games Does Not Show Desensitization on Empathy for Pain: An fMRI Study.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Spontaneous Brain Activity Did Not Show the Effect of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Resting-State fMRI Study.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- The Influence of Empathy and Morality of Violent Video Game Characters on Gamers' Aggression.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Unconscious Processing of Facial Expressions in Individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The use of violent video games has been often linked to increase of aggressive behavior. According to the General Aggression Model, one of the central mechanisms for this aggressiveness inducing impact is an emotional desensitization process resulting from long lasting repeated violent game playing. This desensitization should evidence itself in a lack of empathy. Recent research has focused primarily on acute, short term impact of violent media use but only little is known about long term effects. In this study 15 excessive users of violent games and control subjects matched for age and education viewed pictures depicting emotional and neutral situations with and without social interaction while fMRI activations were obtained. While the typical pattern of activations for empathy and theory of mind networks was seen, both groups showed no differences in brain responses. We interpret our results as evidence against the desensitization hypothesis and suggest that the impact of violent media on emotional processing may be rather acute and short-lived.
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