Why men HAVE to conquer the Xbox

Playing, and particularly winning, most high-tech games activates parts of the male brain which are linked to the primitive desire to conquer, say scientists. 

And that is why men tend to become more obsessed than women with the latest release for the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360.

Will to win: Men tend to be more obsessed than women the latest computer games (picture posed by models)

In the first study of its type, scientists wired up a series of men and women to an MRI scanner while they played a video game. 

This enabled the researchers to monitor the players' brain activity as they tried to win onscreen territory by clicking on a series of balls. 

Professor Allan Reiss, who led the research, said women got the hang of the game and understood how to win the most territory, but were not as driven as men.

'The males were just a lot more motivated to succeed,' he added.

After analysing the MRI data, the researchers found participants of both sexes showed activation in the brain's mesocorticolimbic centre, the region typically associated with reward and addiction.

Male brains, however, showed much greater activation. The amount increased as they gained more territory.

Winning hi-tech games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV, activates parts of the brain that are linked to the desire to conquer, claims Dr Reiss

Three structures within the reward circuit - the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex - were also shown to influence each other much more in men than in women, the scientists wrote in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

And the better connected this circuit was, the better males performed in the game.

Dr Reiss added: 'These gender differences might help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become "hooked" on, video games than females. 

'I think it's fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species.' 

Dr Reiss, of Stanford University in California, said the research also suggested males are more likely to feel rewarded by computer games.