A most recent favourite is with Paloma Rincón on a still life project that we’re really truly excited about

I was born and raised in Avellaneda, a big industrial city outside Capital Federal (Buenos Aires). I studied graphic design in the Public University of Architecture, Design and Urbanism in Buenos Aires. Those were really hard and passionate times, and I had the pleasure of meeting some really talented people who are now important friends. I now live and work in Buenos Aires, in the Palermo neighbourhood.

"Playing video games floods the pleasure center of the brain with dopamine," says David Greenfield, Ph.D., founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and assistant

A study published in the scientific journal Nature in 1998 showed that playing video games releases the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine

"The prefrontal cortex—the locus of judgment, decision-making, and impulse control—undergoes major reorganization during adolescence," explains Tom A. Hummer, Ph.D., assistant research professor in the department of psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis

But not all gaming is bad. Video games can help the brain in a number of ways, such as enhanced visual perception, improved ability to switch between tasks, and better information processing. "In a way, the video game model is brilliant," says Judy Willis, M.D., neurologist, educator, and American Academy of Neurology (AAN) member based in Santa Barbara, CA. "It can feed information to the brain in a way that maximizes learning," she says.

Still, experts agree gaming has addictive qualities

Instead, kids with ADHD often play action video games to flood their senses with visual stimulation, motor challenges, and immediate rewards. In this environment, the ADHD brain functions in a way that allows these children to focus, so much so that they don't exhibit symptoms, such as distractibility, while gaming.

This region of the brain doesn't reach maximum capacity until age 25 or 30

The very nature of action-entertainment games not only attracts young people with focus, attention, and anger issues (particularly in the case of violent games); it also tends to reinforce these negative behaviors.

Useful skills, to be sure, but exercised excessively they can also become problems. After all, when kids become so accustomed to multi-tasking and processing large amounts of information simultaneously, they may have trouble focusing on a lecture in a classroom setting.

Such games also require players to think of an overall strategy, perform several tasks simultaneously, and make decisions that have both an immediate and long-term impact. "That's very much like the multi-tasking inherent in most jobs today," says Dr. Willis. "These young people may be better equipped to switch between tasks easily, adapt to new information, and modify their strategy as new input comes in."

Studies show, for example, playing action video games enhances visual capabilities, such as tracking multiple objects, mentally rotating objects, and storing and manipulating them in the memory centers of the brain. That holds true even for the most maligned action-entertainment games.

And for kids like Rosner, who feel like social outcasts, excelling in the world of gaming can provide a sense of mastery and confidence missing from their actual lives

Video games are designed with a reward structure that's completely unpredictable. The tension of knowing you might score (or kill a warlock), but not knowing exactly when, keeps you in the game. "It's exactly the same reward structure as a slot machine," says Dr. Greenfield. The player develops an unshakeable faith, after a while, that "this will be the time I hit it big."

Video games can help the brain in a number of ways, such as enhanced visual perception, improved ability to switch between tasks, and better information processing. "In a way, the video game model is brilliant," says Judy Willis, M.D., neurologist, educator, and American Academy of Neurology (AAN) member based in Santa Barbara, CA. "It can feed information to the brain in a way that maximizes learning," she says.

ideo games only stimulate brain regions that control vision and movement, other parts of the mind responsible for behavior, emotion, and learning could become underdeveloped

Compared with a control group who spent less than two hours a day online, gamers had less gray matter (the thinking part of the brain).

The problem: many researchers believe that excessive gaming before age 21 or 22 can physically rewire the brain.

They can tell us stories, offer us music, give us challenges, allow us to communicate and interact with others, encourage us to make things, connect us to new communities, and let us play

For these players, games are not just entertainment but a vehicle for self-expression.

Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they’re violent, addictive, childish, worthless). Some of these labels may be deserved.

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While such radical transformations are rare, some psychologists plan to investigate the surge in cosmetic procedures and whether these surgeries have any lasting psychological consequences.