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Essential linkage: Brain scans on MMO players show interesting links between virtual and real selves.

Here's some interesting gaming science, over at the home of smart folks, The New Scientist. Kristina Caudle, a social neuroscientist at Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire, has just finished a study of MMO and other online game players to determine how individual gamers relate to both their virtual and real selves.

Using a brain scan while asking various questions of gamers and their online identities, Caudle has determined that the relationship between character and player is more complex than first thought.

When Caudle's looked for brain areas that were more active when volunteers thought about themselves and their avatars compared with real and virtual others, two regions stood out: the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. That makes sense as prior research has linked the medial prefrontal cortex to self-reflection and judgement.

So, if you're an MMO player, this is pretty fascinating reading, and the article is very well linked to further research.