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Digital Planet: 06/12/2011

Factual: Science & Nature

06/12/2011

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 06/12/2011

A report on whether violent video games actually change brain activity.

Do violent video games cause changes in brain activity, and if so is it detrimental?  Click investigates; A report from Robotville, an exhibition were punters can interact with humanoid robots

Just how damaging are violent video games to the developing minds of adolescents and young adults, especially males?  A new study from the USA using brain scans suggests that there may be significant changes to brain activity following regular playing of video games.  Tom Hummer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Indiana University in the USA discusses the outcomes of his study.  Click is also joined by Angelica Ortiz de Gortari from Nottingham Trent University, in the UK, who is a specialist in Game Transfer Phenomena. 


Pretty soon robots will be in our homes helping us with everyday domestic tasks.  That is the ambition of many of the robotocists specialising in the field of humanoid, social robots.  But before robots can be of any use to humans they are going to have to learn how to interact with us and vice versa.  Many of the world's leading robotocists have recently gathered in London's Science Museum and brought their robots with them.  Lucky visitors to the museum were able to mingle and interact with the robots.  Click's Gareth Mitchell and Jamillah Knowles joined them.  They report on the attraction and fascination of high-end robots like iCub.

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