Why men have to conquer the Xbox

He might be playing with cutting-edge technology, but when a chap picks up a games console he turns into a caveman.

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.

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.

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.

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.