Video games are a huge industry kids and youngadults spend more time playing them than watchingmovies or TV.

电子游戏是十分巨大的产业，儿童和年轻人在这上面花费了远比看电影和电视更多的时间。

And some of the most popular video games areultra realistic war and fighting games featuringmassive amounts of hi-res violence.

许多当前最流行的游戏则是高分辨率暴力为特征的超现实战争和格斗游戏。

So if you're a parent, or a pundit, or maybe even adedicated gamer, you've gotta wonder: does spending countless hours doing virtual violenceto pixelated monsters and warriors have any effect on our sensitive and malleable brains?

如果你是一位家长，或者一位专家，抑或是一位游戏发烧友，你不禁会感到疑惑，花大量时间在这些由像素构成的怪兽和战士实施虚拟的暴力行为是否会影响我们敏感而且可塑性很强的大脑?

To find out, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine studied the effects ofviolent video games on twenty-eight non gaming guys.

为了找出答案，印第安纳大学医学院的研究者们研究了暴力电玩对于28个从未接触过该类游戏的人产生的影响。

Half of them played a violent game for a weekand then took a week off.

他们让一半的研究对象持续打一周然游戏后休息一周。

The other half didn't play any video games, acting as the control group.

而另一半的人作为对照组，不打任何电玩。

After one week the subjects underwent MRI analysis and then again after two weeks.

一周后，对研究对象进行核磁共振分析，两周后，再进行一次核磁共振分析。

During the MRI sessions both groups did tasks meant to test their cognitive abilities.

在进行核磁共振期间，两个小组都接受了旨在测试他们认知能力的测验。

Now, twenty-eight subjects is a pretty small sample size, but the results were interesting.

尽管28名测试对象这样的样本数是非常小的，但结果却是十分有趣。

After onlyone week of gaming, the guys that played the violent game showed decreasedactivity in parts ofthe brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control.

在仅仅玩了一个星期的电玩后，这些玩暴力游戏的人就呈现出大脑控制认知能力和控制情绪部分的活动减少的情况。

After a cool down week of nogaming, the subjects' brain functioning was closer to normal.

而那些一周没有玩游戏的人，他们的大脑功则会恢复到和正常水平相近的状况。

So does this prove that violent video games warp young men's minds?

那么这项实验是否能够证明暴力电玩会扭曲年轻人的思想呢?

Not exactly. That wouldtake a much larger study.

也不尽然。想要证明这个观点还需要更大规模的实验。

But the study at the very least suggests that doing pretend violence may have a real effect onhow we think and act.

但这项实验至少表明，虚拟暴力确实会对我们的思想和行为方式造成一定的影响。