{"id":46,"date":"2024-12-16T12:42:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T09:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/?p=46"},"modified":"2024-12-16T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T09:45:15","slug":"the-psychology-of-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/2024\/12\/16\/the-psychology-of-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Psychology of Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the visual outset,\u00a0the concept of nostalgia seems obvious<\/a>. You see a game you played as a kid\u2014or a game that looks like one you played as a kid\u2014so it triggers happy memories. But let\u2019s pull back the curtain: Why does your brain want to play this game, exactly?<\/p>\n

SohoMD cofounder Jacques Jospitre Jr. says retro games have a dual appeal: Intrinsic and extrinsic properties that explain their popularity. \u201cThe intrinsic aspects have to do with classic gameplay that makes it a timeless experience, like chess,\u201d he says. \u201cAlong with the extrinsic aspects of the game, where it\u2019s associated with positive past experiences, in terms of people and places, making it a trigger for positive emotions. Some combination of both factors is what is driving the renewed interest in the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRetro gaming may trigger nostalgic feelings, emotions, and thoughts,\u201d explained Michael Feldmeier, a psychiatrist at Level Up Mental Health. \u201cThis is a great example of what happens when the memory system and the rewards system of the brain work together. A positive memory can be triggered by a sound, a smell, a certain image, or a thought. This in turn triggers a person's reward center in their brain to release dopamine, the neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and salience. People can gravitate towards retro gaming as they are seeking a known trigger for a positive emotional response.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNostalgia is also thought to be important in emotional resilience,\u201d says Feldmeier. \u201cBy looking at the past, one can sometimes look to the future even when getting bogged down by the pain of the present.\u00a0 If someone can be reminded of a better time, they may hold out hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaming is strongly linked to the brain\u2019s reward pathways. Kenneth Woog of the Computer Addiction Treatment Program in Lake Forest, California, says, \u201cBrain imaging over the past decade has confirmed that video game play activates the reward pathways\u2014pleasure centers\u2014of the brain. These primitive mid-brain structures record this through neural connections, associating the behavior (or substance) with the relative pleasure response.\u201d<\/p>\n

wired.com<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/why-retro-looking-games-get-so-much-love\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the visual outset,\u00a0the concept of nostalgia seems obvious. You see a game you played as a kid\u2014or a game that looks like one you played as a kid\u2014so it triggers happy memories. But let\u2019s pull back the curtain: Why does your brain want to play this game, exactly? SohoMD cofounder Jacques Jospitre Jr. says … Continue reading The Psychology of Nostalgia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794685,"featured_media":10,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/794685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}