With an Xbox update scheduled for tomorrow, Skyrim taking over as the new must have game and 3DS being pushed as the must have chrissy-pressy, it is inevitable that at least half of teenagers will be exposed to some kind of video game, but are these games helping or hindering development?

Rutgers University modified a computer game to help hand-eye coordination in teenagers with Cerebral Palsy, and Rochester University in New York discovered that computer games can improve visual attention skills.  

However, a study by Tohoko University in 2001 proved that video games stunted brain growth, using a Nintendo game and comparing brain scan results with a control from the results found that the frontal lobe stopped growing, which has an important role to play in learning, memory and emotion.

This could mean that teenagers cannot differentiate between reality and the game, could have mood swings and could end up lashing out; which has been the defendants case in a number of recent murders in the US.

Of course, if games had this effect on everyone then we would see a lot more game-style murders and considering that when Call of Duty came out in Jan 2008 it sold 1.57 million for the Xbox 360 and 444,000 units for the PlayStation 3.

It could be argued that extreme gamers don't have the brain growth because they are not interacting with the world, and are in a room playing a computer game all day - that is bound to skew anyone's reality!

Have you any relevant stories, positive or negative for video games?