Already Invented?
There's a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where the entire crew gets addicted to a virtual video game that stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain. Now we have a report that the idea may not be science fiction after all: Watching TV Has Painkilling Effect On Children. It's still early in the realm of this kind of investigation to draw any real conclusions, but one theory is that the brain produces endorphins in response to TV. Not quite the same as stimulating pleasure centers, but pretty similar.
I'm not a big TV watcher, but I do have two uses that would mesh with this theory. When I can't sleep or am worn out and want to "turn my brain off," I find staring mindlessly at the TV to help. And the other thing is I just like to have it on all the time as background noise. Usually I tune it out, but for some reason find it comforting to have on. Maybe even when I'm not paying attention enough to get the "painkilling" effect the subconscious association is there making me want more. I don't know. Anyone feel "addicted" to TV in a way that correlates with this study?
posted by Degolar @ 10:56 AM
2 Comments:
I hate having the TV on if I'm not watching it.
That's a real problem in my house. 8P
I wonder if the same would be true if kids were involved in play or some other form of stimulation. It is painful for me to have to sit with no focus. Concentration in my yoga class has helped with this. I now can settle for long periods without a thought in my mind. It helps for boring meetings. Whoops! Did I say that :)
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