Ashlesh Patil, Deepak Kishore K, Preet Kochhar Kanwal
Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, India.
Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Transl Neurosci. 2020 Nov 3;11(1):419-427. doi: 10.1515/tnsci-2020-0147. eCollection 2020.
Sudoku is a popular cognitively stimulating leisure-time activity. Many studies have been directed toward finding an algorithm to solve Sudoku, but the investigation of the neural substrates involved in Sudoku has been challenging.
Sudoku task was divided into two steps to understand the differential function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) while applying heuristic rules. PFC activity was recorded at 16 optode locations using functional near infrared spectroscopy. Classical two-way analysis of variance as well as general linear model-based approach was used to analyze the data from 28 noise-free recordings obtained from right-handed participants.
analysis showed a significant increase in oxyhemoglobin concentrations and decrease in deoxyhemoglobin concentrations at all 16 optode locations during step 1 (3 × 3 subgrids) and step 2 (easy level 9 × 9 Sudoku) when compared with the rest ( < 0.0001). Contrasting the step 2 - step 1 revealed that medial regions of PFC were preferentially activated.
Both the medial and lateral regions of PFC are activated during Sudoku task. However, the medial regions of PFC play a differential role, especially when we consider searching and selecting the heuristic rules. Thus, Sudoku may be used for cognitive remediation training in neuropsychiatric disorders involving PFC.
数独是一种广受欢迎的具有认知刺激作用的休闲活动。许多研究致力于寻找解决数独的算法，但对数独所涉及的神经基质的研究一直具有挑战性。
数独任务分为两个步骤，以了解在应用启发式规则时前额叶皮层（PFC）的不同功能。使用功能近红外光谱在16个光极位置记录PFC活动。采用经典的双向方差分析以及基于一般线性模型的方法来分析从右利手参与者获得的28次无噪声记录的数据。
分析表明，与休息状态相比，在步骤1（3×3子网格）和步骤2（简单难度的9×9数独）期间，所有16个光极位置的氧合血红蛋白浓度显著增加，脱氧血红蛋白浓度降低（<0.0001）。步骤2与步骤1的对比显示，PFC的内侧区域被优先激活。
在数独任务期间，PFC的内侧和外侧区域均被激活。然而，PFC的内侧区域发挥着不同的作用，尤其是当我们考虑搜索和选择启发式规则时。因此，数独可用于涉及PFC的神经精神疾病的认知康复训练。
