O desenvolvimento da paixão harmoniosa por jogos digitais e sua relação com a Neurociência: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Video gaming is a highly satisfying practice that is part of more than one third of the world's population routine. Although there is a culture in which games are widely associated with addiction, this is not always the result of high engagements in this activity. Many of these video gamers are passionate about what they do, but in a way that does not affect other aspects of life. The harmonious passion is a conceptualization of this healthy affective relationship that occurs when there is a high dedication of the person to an activity, including video games. The present study aims to gather research about the aspects of the development of this feeling for video games and to relate it to studies about Neuroscience through an integrative review. Thus, the goal is to clarify the scenario of what is known about the harmonious passion for video games and the related Neuroscience. Studies were searched in PubMed, Google Scholar e ResearchGate using relevant search terms for the subject. Research also occurred in references of the selected articles. Based on this investigation, the current study brings the main theories about engagement in games cited in literature, showing how can they be related; informs how the development of harmonious passion is described; and discusses the neural bases that can be associated to concepts about the development of this feeling. It was found that a possible high participation of central structures of the brain’s reward system can be related to the harmonious passion, specially the striatum, anterior insular cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, in addition to connections with general valence, sensory and motor networks. Since this is an area that is not sufficiently explored, highlighting the importance of further investigating of its mechanisms, this work contributes with what is known so far about the harmonious passion for video games, which allows better guidance for future research in different areas of knowledge.