The video gaming experience doesn't end for all enthusiasts after they've put down the controller. Hallucinations can cause some gamers to continue hearing the sounds of gun fire, explosions and even people breathing, long after they have stopped playing.
Using online gaming forums to communicate with gamers, psychology researchers reached approxiamtely 1,200 people who said they had experienced hallucination-like episodes that influenced thoughts and behaviors. Results from the "International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning" study showed that at least 12 percent respondenants reported "hearing imaginary sounds" after playing video games.
Typical sounds heard included noises associated with cars, lasers, bullets, explosions, swords, screams, falling coins, ringing, beeping and breathing. Often the "auditory experiences" are triggered by real-life objects or events similar to actions occuring in games.
"Objects and events simulated in the game have become what I like to call 'evocative objects' that trigger responses that have been conditioned, such as emotions, sensations, perceptions and involuntary body movements," said Angelica Ortiz de Gortari, the study's lead author and faculty member at Nottingham Trent University in England.
"The gamers' minds are completing the missing pieces in the puzzle," she added, "and they hear and see what they have expected to see due to the game play."
One gamer reported hearing a voice whisper "death," while another heard the words "go, go, go" in his head when he wanted people to move in the subway. The researchers found some of these experiences kept gamers up at night or made them feel scared, annoyed, disconcerted or like they were "going crazy."
Ortiz suggests that gamers seek help at the point when they start to question their mental health or develop irrational thoughts, although she said that brief hallucinations shouldn't be a cause for concern. The game transfer phenomena occurs mainly with "excessive gamers," according to the study's co-author Mark Griffiths.
"For some gamers, the phenomena are conditioned responses; therefore, the best way for the tiny minority that may have longer lasting phenomena is to simply cut down the amount they play," he said.
In other words, put down the controller and maybe try enjoying the real-life sounds of nature.
