Why do more men than women like to play (violent) video games? Professor Allan Reiss of Stanford University found out that it's all about their urge to conquer and vanquish:
In the study, published recently in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, scientists wired up a series of men and women to an MRI scanner while they played a video game, which involved competing to win on-screen territory by clicking on a series of balls.
After analysing the MRI data, the researchers found participants showed activation in the brain's mesocorticolimbic centre, the region typically associated with reward and addiction.
Male brains, however, showed much greater activation, and the amount increased as they gained more territory. This was not the case with women.