Thursday, February 22, 2001

K-STATE PROFESSOR "MAPS" BRAINS FOR EFFECT OF TV VIOLENCE ON YOUTH

MANHATTAN -- It's a debate that has been on-going almost as long as the medium itself -- the effect of television violence on children and adults.

The discussion began in the early 1950s with congressional hearings on the impact of television violence on juvenile delinquency. In the 1960s, the Eisenhower Commission, led by former Kansas State University president Milton Eisenhower, examined media violence as an underlying contributing factor to a growing culture of violence. In 1972, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report expressing similar concern about television violence on children. In the 1980s, the National Institute issued a report that built upon the Surgeon General's report in 1972. Subsequent reports in the 1990s from the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics each expanded on previous reports. And just this past January, former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher released a report on youth violence, part of which addressed the issue of media violence as a follow up to the Columbine incident. He too, cited reasons to be concerned about violence in television and on film and its effect on youth.

The consensus of this collected body of research that spans half a century shows three main effects of viewing media violence: aggression, desensitization and fear.

"This isn't some isolated issue," said John Murray, a Kansas State University professor of family studies and human services. "This has been simmering for a long time and at some point we're going to have to come to grips with how we're going to deal with the ever-escalating violence."

Murray has been researching television violence and its effects on children for over 30 years, moving from experimental studies of aggression and prosocial behavior in relation to viewing to his most recent research which involves "mapping" children's brains as they watch video violence. In the latest issue of The Advocate, a quarterly newsletter of the American Psychological Association, Murray reviews nearly a half century of research on the issue.

Murray's foray into brain mapping children's response to video violence, in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Sciences Center and the Mind Science Foundation, involved eight youths between the ages of 8 and 13 who viewed televised violent and nonviolent video sequences while brain activations were measured with a functional MRI. The video material viewed included two, three-minute violent boxing clips from Rocky IV; and three-minute, nonviolent clips from a National Geographic special; Ghostwriter, a children's literacy program; and two, three-minute clips of an "X" on a blue screen.

Murray and his colleagues anticipated and did see activation patterns that indicated emotional arousal while viewing the violence or activation of the limbonic system and general right hemisphere activations. What they did not expect to see was activation in two areas: the premotor cortex, an area on the right side of the brain that controls motor planning for action, and the posterior cingulate, which is reserved for long-term memory of traumatic events.

According to Murray, the interpretation of the premotor cortex activation while viewing violence suggests that the subjects were attempting to imitate the boxing sequences.

"Going into this we thought we would see areas of the brain responding to the violence just because it was more active or more arousing," Murray said. "We expected to see heart rates increase, we expected to see brain areas involved in fear or aggression being activated. However, the concern in this study was the suggestions that these children were storing entertainment violence as though it were a significant life event, like a post-traumatic stress memory."

Murray said there is still a great deal to be learned about how television violence effects children; parents, psychologists and mental health professionals should be more active in their discussion and evaluation of policies and practices that contribute to violence in society.

"Television and film violence are a part of these influences but they are not the sole cause," Murray said. There are many things that professionals can do to begin or expand the discussion of concerns about television violence. Some of these actions include becoming knowledgeable about current research findings and advocating more thoughtful approaches to dealing with entertainment violence. Parents simply need to know what their youngsters are watching and express their feelings about it."

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Prepared by Keener A. Tippin II. For more information contact Murray at 785-532-1456.

A composite illustration of brain activation of a youth while viewing TV violence is available via e-mail. Contact media@ksu.edu