Video gaming can be associated with inter-individual differences in brain morphology. Much of this literature has focused on non-professional/occasional gamers who barely play, on the one extreme; or Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) cases who typically play more than 5 h/day, on the other extreme. We sought to extend this literature and focus on extensive gamers, who play about 3 h/day, which is typically more than non-professional gamers, but less than IGD cases. Findings regarding this sector of gamers can inform research on risk factors or markers for IGD development, even before addiction symptoms emerge. We predicted that extensive gamers have smaller prefrontal regions that presumably reflect weaker inhibition abilities, and larger visuomotor regions that presumably reflect stronger motor skills in response to visual stimuli. We tested these assertions with a between-subject brain morphology comparison of 26 extensive League of Legends (LOL) and matched 26 non-gamers, using voxel based morphometry, deformation based morphometry, and cortical thickness and sulcus depth analyses. Findings largely supported our predictions by pointing to morphological alterations in extensive gamers in the bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as well is in the left superior parietal lobule. These findings suggest that extensive gamers, at least of Massive-Multiplayer battle arena games, present brain alterations that are consistent with presumed loss of control (as mediated by the prefrontal cortex), but also improved attention and visoumotor skills (as mediated by superior parietal lobule). Implications for research and practice are discussed.

视频游戏可能与大脑形态的个体差异有关。许多文献集中于一个极端情况下几乎不玩游戏的非专业/偶尔游戏玩家。或互联网游戏障碍（IGD）案件，通常每天玩5小时以上，而另一极端。我们试图扩展这些文献，将重点放在每天玩3小时左右的广泛游戏玩家上，这通常比非专业游戏玩家更多，但少于IGD案例。有关游戏玩家这一领域的发现甚至可以在成瘾症状出现之前就为IGD发展的危险因素或标记物提供信息。我们预测，大量游戏者的前额叶区域较小，可能反映出较弱的抑制能力，而较大的粘膜运动区域，可能反映出对视觉刺激的较强的运动技能。我们使用基于体素的形态学，基于变形的形态学以及皮层厚度和沟深度分析，通过对26个广泛的英雄联盟（LOL）和匹配的26个非玩家进行受试者间脑形态学比较来测试这些断言。这些发现主要指出了双侧腹侧前额叶皮层和左背外侧前额叶皮层以及左顶叶小叶中广泛的博弈者的形态变化，从而在很大程度上支持了我们的预测。这些发现表明，至少在大规模多人游戏竞技场游戏中，广泛的游戏玩家呈现出与推测的失控（由前额皮层介导）相一致的大脑变化，但也改善了注意力和粘性运动能力（如由上顶叶介导）小叶）。讨论了对研究和实践的意义。