mind over matter

Alright, somebody get the Pulitzer panel on the phone, because I have an entry for Best Lede, drawn from an article in the New York Times today:

“Why does it often seem that men enjoy playing video games more than women? Perhaps because they do.”

Poetry. This is actually an interesting study, though. Eleven men and eleven women played a simple video game while an MRI machine tracked their brain activity. They were just told to click on images of a ball, but they noticed that if they kept the ball from hitting a wall, they “gained ground” (whatever that means.) Men performed better than women, but here’s the surprising bit: while “playing,” a part of the brain involved in feelings of addiction and reward became much more activated in men than in women.

Researchers kept the game “neutral,” so we can’t chalk men’s relative enjoyment of video games up to the often-violent themes. Turns out they just, well, like it more. Wow, guys, it really doesn’t take much to get you excited, does it - clicking on images of a ball?