There representation of violence Or scenes that refer to aggressive conduct is something that has always accompanied the man in its history.
In ancient Greece he even acquired a healing value. It was Aristotle who described in poetics the liberating and detachment process from passions, useful for humanity, through the representation of events characterized by the strong colors of the tragedy: the catharsis.
If he were among us Aristotle would reconfirm his idea of catharsis?
What would have been the Aristotelian thought today about the massive presence of violent content In the media, a mystery will remain forever. It is certainly not a mystery the debate that aroused the release of Kubrick’s film “Orange”.
It was the distant ’71 and at the time the representation of violence, in its various forms, was limited to cinemas, to an environment that placed itself outside of domestic everyday life, and that could allow the viewer to choose whether or not to assist representation.
Today the scenario has changed: the violent images of the media bursts into homes by not allowing the viewer to choose whether or not to assist or not emotionally prepare for content.
Common sense leads us to think that it is not a cure -all for mental health, but it seems that it is not very important: it continues like this.
What does the brain entails theexposure to violent scenes Do you observe through the media?
One response has tried to provide her with the New York research group of Nelly Alia-Klein by comparing brain reactions to the vision of violent videos in a group consisting of subjects who had had aggressive conduct in the past with those of a group of subjects who had never expressed this trait.
The interesting question was as follows: do the two groups answer similarly to the vision of videos with violent scenes?
What emerged is that subjects with stories of aggressive conduct During vision of videos, they manifested less cerebral activity at the level of the orbit-fried cortex, an area involved in the self-controlled processes and in the decision-making processes connected to emotions. This phenomenon that has not been observed in non -aggressive subjects.
In the interval phases between one video and the other, that is, when images or scenes were not projected – in a rest condition – the aggressive subjects presented an unusual hyperactivity in the regions of the default – Mode Network (DMN); This data has not also been detected in non -aggressive subjects.
By DMN we mean a circuit that connects different brain systems characterized by a high and coherent metabolic activity or blood flow during waking rest, which would represent an internal and self-transferential processing.
The data detected by the comparison suggests that i subjects with aggressive traits They have a basic map of brain operation different from those who do not present such sections.
During the projection of violent scenes, aggressive subjects reported feeling inspired and less irritable than usual. In addition, their blood pressure levels decreased during the projection of the images. In non -aggressive subjects the reverse happened: the pressure values increased and the images aroused feelings of restlessness.
What this experiment tells us is that subjects with Basic aggressive features processing the violent images of the media in different ways compared to those who do not have similar traits.
The impact that violent scenes have on the public depends on the viewer’s brain structure and its personality traits. It could be assumed that the effect of violent videos is therefore greater in aggressive subjects, with one Slatentizing tendency on aggression.
At the study of Alia-Klein, the merit of having brought attention to a particularly particularly today and serious theme, with the rigor of a scientific study, must be recognized.
It does not provide answers – obviously because it was not among the objectives – on what happens when the viewer is a child and what it entails in the long term, in the various age groups, this constant exposure.
In my opinion it will happen as for many other things: it will be expected that over time the long -term damage is observed to start reflecting us in a more articulated way with competent locations and figures and not in the talk show debates or in the interview with the opinionist of the moment.
The studies of neuroscience that bring attention to the phenomenon are welcome.
The observation remains that any scientific study can never replace ethical reflections on valuable patterns: and unfortunately the bitter observation is that the latter are missing.
