Jordan Timothy, Dhamala Mukesh
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA.
Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA.
Neuroimage Rep. 2022 Jun 22;2(3):100112. doi: 10.1016/j.ynirp.2022.100112. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Video game playing is a popular activity which provides a cognitively engaging, sensory rich environment that can lead to cognitive benefits in those who play frequently. How exactly they change our brain to achieve these cognitive benefits has yet to be known. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, we examined the behavioral and brain responses of video game- players (VGP) and non-video game-players (NVGP) during decision-making tasks. In behavioral response, VGP were overall faster by approximately 190 ms and more accurate by 2% than NVGP. In brain response, comparing percent signal changes in commonly activated brain regions between groups, we found that video gamers had increased task-related signal changes in the right lingual gyrus, right supplementary motor area (SMA), and left thalamus associated with improved behavioral response. Directed functional network activities to the right SMA and the left thalamus were also increased. The regional signal changes and network activities of all participants were found to be negatively correlated with decision response time, indicating that higher the node and network activities better the performance. These results provide novel insights into the brain mechanisms that underlie improvements in sensorimotor decision-making abilities due to video game playing.
玩电子游戏是一项广受欢迎的活动，它提供了一个认知上引人入胜、感官丰富的环境，经常玩游戏的人可能从中获得认知益处。它们究竟如何改变我们的大脑以实现这些认知益处，目前尚不清楚。在一项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）实验中，我们研究了电子游戏玩家（VGP）和非电子游戏玩家（NVGP）在决策任务中的行为和大脑反应。在行为反应方面，VGP总体上比NVGP快约190毫秒，准确率高2%。在大脑反应方面，比较两组之间共同激活的脑区的信号变化百分比，我们发现电子游戏玩家在右侧舌回、右侧辅助运动区（SMA）和左侧丘脑的任务相关信号变化增加，这与行为反应的改善有关。指向右侧SMA和左侧丘脑的功能网络活动也增加了。所有参与者的区域信号变化和网络活动与决策反应时间呈负相关，这表明节点和网络活动越高，表现越好。这些结果为电子游戏玩法带来的感觉运动决策能力提升背后的大脑机制提供了新的见解。
