Duke Nukem-like video game to help measure depression?

Contrary to popular belief, the lives of gamers aren't necessarily all lame and depressing. In fact, recent studies from the US National Institute of Mental Health shown that depressed people pwn less than non-depressed people in video games that test spatial memory. Depression has been associated with a shrunken hippocampus, a part of the brain that influences spatial memory performance. USNIMH researchers have developed a video game based on scenes from Duke Nukem where players navigate around a virtual town trying to hit up as many landmarks as possible in a limited amount of time. The depressed players averaged at 2.4 locations in comparison to "healthy" players with 3.8 locations. Players suffering from deeper depressions yielded lower scores -- an indicator that these tests may someday lead to quantitatively measuring different levels of depression. Of course, it's hard to quantify how much a continued lack of Duke Nukem Forever might have tainted these results.

[Thanks, Matthew S.]

[Wonderboy @ Mar 12th 2007 1:41PM]

Lol... that "lame gamer" joke was pretty freakin' funny.

[paralipsis @ Mar 12th 2007 2:53PM]

It might be a difficult test to employ on gamers. I image prior experience with FPS games might drastically improve your performance on this test, shrunken hippocampus or not.

[Tom @ Mar 12th 2007 3:13PM]

So... thats why I don't own in counter-strike anymore.

/wrists

[JoshLowry @ Mar 12th 2007 3:14PM]

@ paralipsis

You would think that they would take that sort of stuff into consideration when they are employing this kind of a study. The US National Institute of Mental Health probably spent a stupid amount of money on this to come up with 'Depressed people do not perform as well.'



- Josh


Where's your head at? - http://www.StateOfBrain.com

[Kev50027 @ Mar 12th 2007 3:34PM]

This doesn't suggest a causation relationship though. There's no reason that just because the people are depressed, their scores are lower. Perhaps there are other reasons why the people who were depressed got a lower score, such as depressed people tend to stay in their house more often, or something of that nature.

[Andy S. @ Mar 12th 2007 5:55PM]

Kev50027, the article itself does not suggest causation, merely correlation. It is not saying that depression causes poor performance. Rather, it says that depression and a shrunken hippocampus are linked, and likewise, a shrunken hippocampus can adversely affect spatial navigation in a game. Therefore, if one is depressed, one is also likely to perform poorly in the game. One doesn't cause the other, but they are likely to occur together.

The point of the article is still valid: if this link is reasonably reliable, a person's ability to navigate in a virtual environment may allow some means of measuring the extent of a person's depression.

[Chase @ Mar 12th 2007 10:24PM]

Uhhh, well, what you just said makes no sense either. You do sound like a braniac though, I think that's obvious.

All these questions you all are bringing up are definitely all considered in the study and there are methods for factoring out these factors, typically. This is a scientific study, not a guessing game that can be refuted by a bunch of teenagers who like FPS games.

I think the fact that a depressed individual has a shrunken hippocampus is good evidence to support their findings and I do think that there is something to the idea that depressed individuals do not perform as well in games. One can apply this theory to other activities taht utilize the hippocampus as a primary tool in the function of the activity.

[Kev50027 @ Mar 12th 2007 6:28PM]

Yes, you make a good point, but I still don't believe using a game to test depression works that well. Perhaps some people may be unfamiliar with the controls, and it is impossible to isolate the specific variable you are looking for. I believe a more accurate method to determine if someone is suffering from depression is to simply talk with them and discuss their feelings. I don't see any reason for this to change in the future. A simple written test is most likely far more accurate at determining presence of depression than what was discussed above.

[nate w @ Mar 12th 2007 5:56PM]

i will say, i'm with kev50027 on this one. there's little information about what caused this depression and how that could effect the outcome. if a gamer is depressed cause he just got pwn'd in halo, he might suck if he switches over to GOW. Then again, if you're depressed cause you just got fragged in RL, you might be able to successfully divert all your attention and focus on the game rather than why your *former* boss might have fired you. for playing video games at work.

[GameboyRMH @ Mar 12th 2007 8:00PM]

If you want to test spatial memory, forget Duke Nukem, try Descent.

[Banjoker @ Mar 13th 2007 12:45AM]

I think the idea was that this game would be able to help determine how affected a person's hippocampus is by the depressive disorder. I'm betting that a few of the people on here are right in that not all depressed people will show as having severely affected spatial memory. I think I'm a pretty good gamer and I suffer from depression. Also note that gaming is not something at which everyone excels. Gaming skills are acquired over time.

[E71 @ Mar 13th 2007 5:18AM]

You mean 'Duke Nukem' not 'Duke Nukem Forever'. Duke Nukem Forever is vaporware.