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Schematic representation of Space Fortress (A), along with a graphical description of the SF MRI task design with blocks of active play and passive viewing interspersed with fixation periods (B).
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Acquisition of complex skills is a universal feature of human behavior that has been conceptualized as a process that starts with intense resource dependency, requires effortful cognitive control, and ends in relative automaticity on the multi-faceted task. The present study examined the effects of different theoretically based training strategies...
Citations
... Over the last decade, fNIRS has been used extensively to assess workload, quantify mental capacity, and track training in both laboratory and field settings [22,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Majority of these studies have focused on quantifying Reddy et al. ...
... Without accounting for individual characteristics, our results from skill acquisition phase indicated significant decreases in mental effort within LDLPFC and RAMPFC (see Additional file 1: Table S1). These results support neural plasticity and practice theory, which states that practice is effective in decreasing brain activity intensity within attentional and control areas [22,30,33,52,59,63]. Secondly, our results from transfer phase showed significant increases within LAMPFC and RAMPFC. ...
Assessment of expertise development during training program primarily consists of evaluating interactions between task characteristics, performance, and mental load. Such a traditional assessment framework may lack consideration of individual characteristics when evaluating training on complex tasks, such as driving and piloting, where operators are typically required to execute multiple tasks simultaneously. Studies have already identified individual characteristics arising from intrinsic, context, strategy, personality, and preference as common predictors of performance and mental load. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of individual difference in skill acquisition and transfer using an ecologically valid dual task, behavioral, and brain activity measures. Specifically, we implemented a search and surveillance task (scanning and identifying targets) using a high-fidelity training simulator for the unmanned aircraft sensor operator, acquired behavioral measures (scan, not scan, over scan, and adaptive target find scores) using simulator-based analysis module, and measured brain activity changes (oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin) from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using a portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) sensor array. The experimental protocol recruited 13 novice participants and had them undergo three easy and two hard sessions to investigate skill acquisition and transfer, respectively. Our results from skill acquisition sessions indicated that performance on both tasks did not change when individual differences were not accounted for. However inclusion of individual differences indicated that some individuals improved only their scan performance (Attention-focused group), while others improved only their target find performance (Accuracy-focused group). Brain activity changes during skill acquisition sessions showed that mental load decreased in the right anterior medial PFC (RAMPFC) in both groups regardless of individual differences. However, mental load increased in the left anterior medial PFC (LAMPFC) of Attention-focused group and decreased in the Accuracy-focused group only when individual differences were included. Transfer results showed no changes in performance regardless of grouping based on individual differences; however, mental load increased in RAMPFC of Attention-focused group and left dorsolateral PFC (LDLPFC) of Accuracy-focused group. Efficiency and involvement results suggest that the Attention-focused group prioritized the scan task, while the Accuracy-focused group prioritized the target find task. In conclusion, training on multitasks results in individual differences. These differences may potentially be due to individual preference. Future studies should incorporate individual differences while assessing skill acquisition and transfer during multitask training.
... The exception is a very recent paper showing that, generally, increases in hippocampus can be observed after training with a 3D platformer game, however, with differential results being found after training with action video games, depending on the navigation strategy of the participants (with response learners showing decreases of hippocampal volume, whereas spatial learners show increases). 44 In contrast, of the 15 studies focusing on brain functional changes, 7 23,24,30,32,37,38,40 report exclusive increases in brain function, be it measured at rest or during a task-based design; the other 8 [27][28][29][33][34][35][36]39 studies report only or also decreases in brain function. Results are inconsistent or even contradictory, however. ...
... Experimental video gaming and cognition -Kühn et al and integrated across studies with final conclusions drawn from them. There seems to be a strong preponderance of reported decreases of brain function in studies in which the task performed during measurement was closely related to the video game that was actually trained (n=6) 2,9,30,34,35,37,40 The direction of these results -namely decreases in brain activity due to training when the trained task is performed -are in line with previous studies on classical cognitive training in which the training tasks consist of adaptations of neuropsychological test batteries and where brain activity was measured before and after a considerable interval of training in exactly the trained task. 46-48 However, also in the later field some studies only report increases. ...
Video gaming as a popular form of leisure activity and its effect on cognition, brain function, and structure has come into focus in the field of neuroscience. Visuospatial cognition and attention seem to benefit the most, whereas for executive functions, memory, and general cognition, the results are contradictory. The particular characteristics of video games driving these effects remain poorly understood. We critically discuss major challenges for the existing research, namely, the lack of precise definitions of video gaming, the lack of distinct choice of cognitive ability under study, and the lack of standardized study protocols. Less research exists on neural changes in addition to cognitive changes due to video gaming. Existing studies reveal evidence for the involvement of similar brain regions in functional and structural changes. There seems to be a predominance in the hippocampal, prefrontal, and parietal brain regions; however, studies differ immensely, which makes a meta-analytic interpretation vulnerable. We conclude that theoretical work is urgently needed.
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... A final important avenue in future studies will be to uncover how, at the neural level, action video game play impacts various skills. An increasing number of studies have begun to address the structural (Basak, Voss, Erickson, Boot, & Kramer, 2011;Erickson et al., 2010;Kühn, Gleich, Lorenz, Lindenberger, & Gallinat, 2014;Kühn et al., 2011;Sagi et al., 2012;Tanaka et al., 2013;Vo et al., 2011) and functional (Bavelier, Achtman, Mani, & Föcker, 2012;Lee et al., 2012;Mishra, Zinni, Bavelier, & Hillyard, 2011;Prakash et al., 2012;Voss et al., 2012) neural correlates of video game play. Unfortu- nately, the majority of the work to date has not independently assessed the impact of different types of games, but has instead lumped all games into a common category. ...
The ubiquity of video games in today’s society has led to significant interest in their impact on the brain and behavior and in the possibility of harnessing games for good. The present meta-analyses focus on one specific game genre that has been of particular interest to the scientific community—action video games, and cover the period 2000–2015. To assess the long-lasting impact of action video game play on various domains of cognition, we first consider cross-sectional studies that inform us about the cognitive profile of habitual action video game players, and document a positive average effect of about half a standard deviation (g = 0.55). We then turn to long-term intervention studies that inform us about the possibility of causally inducing changes in cognition via playing action video games, and show a smaller average effect of a third of a standard deviation (g = 0.34). Because only intervention studies using other commercially available video game genres as controls were included, this latter result highlights the fact that not all games equally impact cognition. Moderator analyses indicated that action video game play robustly enhances the domains of top-down attention and spatial cognition, with encouraging signs for perception. Publication bias remains, however, a threat with average effects in the published literature estimated to be 30% larger than in the full literature. As a result, we encourage the field to conduct larger cohort studies and more intervention studies, especially those with more than 30 hours of training.
... These kinds of technological changes cannot be stopped and are not necessarily detrimental. As an instance, according to recent behavioral and neurophysiological studies, there is evidence that videogame training can induce neuroplastic changes associated with improvement of executive function, working memory, top-down attention, and visuospatial processing [62][63][64][65]. In light of these considerations, categorizing these changes as negative or positive per se seems naive, and future studies should focus on the analysis of causal relationships between the different variables involved in the many uses of such devices. ...
Background:
According to the Digital Agenda for Europe, the way children use the Internet and mobile technologies has changed dramatically in the past years.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to: (1) breakdown the modalities of access and use of the Internet by teenagers to assess risks and risky behaviors; and (2) provide scientific data to evaluate and counsel safe use of the Internet and new technologies by teenagers.
Methods:
The study was conducted under the program "Strategies for a Better Internet for Children" started in May 2012 by the European Commission. It represents the main result of the project launched by Telecom Italia, "Anche io ho qualcosa da dire" (I too have something to say), thanks to which many contributions were collected and used to develop a survey. The questionnaire was structured in 45 questions, covering three macro areas of interest. It was approved by the Department Board at University of Magna Graecia's School of Medicine. After authorization from the regional high school authority, it was administered to all 1534 students (aged 13-19 years) in the city of Catanzaro, Italy.
Results:
The data was broken down into three main groups: (1) describing education and access to the Internet; (2) methods of use and social networking; and (3) perception and evaluation of risk and risky behaviors. Among noteworthy results in the first group, we can mention that the average age of first contact with information technologies was around 9 years. Moreover, 78.87% (1210/1534) of the interviewed students reported having access to a smartphone or a tablet. Among the results of the second group, we found that the most used social networks were Facebook (85.78%, 1316/1534), YouTube (61.14%, 938/1534), and Google+ (51.56%, 791/1534). About 71.31% (1094/1534) of the interviewed teenagers use their name and surname on social networks, and 40.09% (615/1534) of them knew all their Facebook contacts personally. Among the results of the third group, we found that 7.69% (118/1534) of the interviewed teenagers have uploaded pictures or movies of which they felt ashamed; 27.05% (415/1534) have received invitations from people they met on the Internet to meet in real life; and 8.67% (133/1534) have accepted such invitations.
Conclusions:
The results offer a breakdown of the teenagers' use of the Internet, focusing on how teenagers learn to use and access it while taking into account factors such as parental coaching, schooling, or self-education. It describes how they approach and interact with social networks and how they perceive risks and risky behaviors on the Internet. Information technology must be seen as an instrument and not as a hindrance. For this to happen, parental guidance, schooling, and medical counseling are needed for a sound development of the child in this critical stage.
... Practice-based repetitive exposure of operator to cognitive task is common and one potential method for enhancement of such neurocognitive capacity. A growing body of neuroergonomics studies suggest that mental workload and skill acquisition for complex real-world tasks such as airplane piloting and medical surgery operations can be monitored for assessment and enhancement [6][7][8]. ...
Learning of complex skills can be enhanced if the training can adapt to the learner. Earlier studies utilized behavioral performance based adaptation; however, behavioral performance assessment is limited and does not take into account the mental effort and the brain plasticity changes during the acquisition of complex skills. In this study, we utilized objective brain based measures for the assessment and adaptation of a four-day training program with three piloting tasks on four participants using a low fidelity flight simulator. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) from prefrontal cortex was measured to adapt the difficulty levels of the training trials of the tasks with the aim of optimizing the cognitive workload. Participants also performed reference practice trials that had the same difficulty across sessions. Preliminary results identified specific brain areas within prefrontal cortex for each reference tasks that corroborates earlier task practice studies. Furthermore, the same brain areas were responsive to the adaptive training trials as well. The results overall suggest task specific brain areas are coupled with the behavioral performance. This study outlines a new neurofeedback based training paradigm using the wearable and portable fNIRS. Future uses of such personalized training could help prevent unnecessary over-training or insufficient under-training.
... In this group of studies, it is common to find exposure to VGs as the independent variable, especially in most studies that use unmodified commercial VGs. However, it is not unusual to employ custom designed VGs, such as the widely used Space Fortress, where in-game variables can be fine-tuned to elicit certain mental processes in consonance with the research hypothesis (e.g., Anderson et al., 2011;Prakash et al., 2012;Anderson et al., 2015). Nevertheless, in both cases, the study of the VG exposure over the nervous system and the use of VGs as a research tool, VGs are used to obtain information about the underlying neural processes relevant to our research interest. ...
Background: Video gaming is an increasingly popular activity in contemporary society, especially among young people, and video games are increasing in popularity not only as a research tool but also as a field of study. Many studies have focused on the neural and behavioral effects of video games, providing a great deal of video game derived brain correlates in recent decades. There is a great amount of information, obtained through a myriad of methods, providing neural correlates of video games.
Objectives: We aim to understand the relationship between the use of video games and their neural correlates, taking into account the whole variety of cognitive factors that they encompass.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted using standardized search operators that included the presence of video games and neuro-imaging techniques or references to structural or functional brain changes. Separate categories were made for studies featuring Internet Gaming Disorder and studies focused on the violent content of video games.
Results: A total of 116 articles were considered for the final selection. One hundred provided functional data and 22 measured structural brain changes. One-third of the studies covered video game addiction, and 14% focused on video game related violence.
Conclusions: Despite the innate heterogeneity of the field of study, it has been possible to establish a series of links between the neural and cognitive aspects, particularly regarding attention, cognitive control, visuospatial skills, cognitive workload, and reward processing. However, many aspects could be improved. The lack of standardization in the different aspects of video game related research, such as the participants' characteristics, the features of each video game genre and the diverse study goals could contribute to discrepancies in many related studies.
... They require little processing and are carried out automatically. While they may have been learned explicitly and, during learning, required activation of the PFC and parietal cortex, thus demonstrating top-down control, with practice the roles of the prefrontal and parietal cortices diminish [68][69][70] and the sensory cortices and their association areas take control. Thus, a well-learned perception/attention task may respond slightly differently to exercise than a less well-learned task. ...
Research shows that moderate duration, moderate intensity, acute exercise generates increases in plasma catecholamines concentrations, which stimulate the vagal/nucleus tractus solitarii pathway. This induces the synthesis and release of catecholamines in the brain. Moderate increases in catecholamines concentrations facilitate performance of most cognitive tasks. Long duration, moderate intensity, and heavy exercise generate excessive concentrations of catecholamines, as well as resulting in increased concentrations of cortisol, which interact with catecholamines to inhibit working memory. However, heavy exercise has a beneficial effect on long-term memory due to activation of β-adrenoreceptors in the hippocampus and increased exercise-induced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels, which aid neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. Heavy exercise also facilitates performance of autonomous tasks, probably due to activation of α1- and β-adrenoreceptors. With attention/perception tasks results are somewhat equivocal, although theoretically activation of α1- and β-adrenoreceptors should also aid the performance of these tasks.
... They require little processing and are carried out automatically. While they may have been learned explicitly and, during learning, required activation of the PFC and parietal cortex, thus demonstrating top-down control, with practice the roles of the prefrontal and parietal cortices diminish [68][69][70] and the sensory cortices and their association areas take control. Thus, a well-learned perception/attention task may respond slightly differently to exercise than a less well-learned task. ...
The catecholamines hypothesis for the acute exercise-cognition interaction in humans fails to adequately explain the interaction between peripherally circulating catecholamines and brain concentrations; how different exercise intensities×durations affect different cognitive tasks; and how brain catecholamines, glucocorticoids, BDNF and 5-hydroxytryptamine interact. A review of the animal literature was able to clarify many of the issues. Rodent studies showed that facilitation of cognition during short to moderate duration (SMD), moderate exercise could be accounted for by activation of the locus coeruleus via feedback from stretch reflexes, baroreceptors and, post-catecholamines threshold, β-adrenoceptors on the vagus nerve. SMD, moderate exercise facilitates all types of task by stimulation of the reticular system by norepinephrine (NE) but central executive tasks are further facilitated by activation of α2A-adrenoceptors and D1-dopaminergic receptors in the prefrontal cortex, which increases the signal to 'noise' ratio. During long-duration, moderate exercise and heavy exercise, brain concentrations of glucocorticoids and 5-hydroxytryptamine, the latter in moderate exercise only, also increase. This further increases catecholamines release. This results in increased activation of D1-receptors and α1-adrenoceptors, in the prefrontal cortex, which dampens all neural activity, thus inhibiting central executive performance. However, activation of β- and α1-adrenoceptors can positively affect signal detection in the sensory cortices, hence performance of perception/attention and autonomous tasks can be facilitated. Animal studies also show that during long-duration, moderate exercise and heavy exercise, NE activation of β-adrenoceptors releases cAMP, which modulates the signaling and trafficking of the BDNF receptor Trk B, which facilitates long-term potentiation.
... Although studies focusing on cognitive training in older individuals have failed to provide evidence for broad transfer to untrained cognitive skills (for a review, see Stine-Morrow and , broader transfer has been observed in younger adults where cognitive control was trained through shifting task priorities in complex video games (Gopher et al., 1989;Kramer et al., 1995Kramer et al., , 1999bBoot et al., 2010;Lee et al., 2012a,b;Prakash et al., 2012;Voss et al., 2012). This approach, called variable priority training, compared to fixed priority training, relies more on the attentional control networks in the brain . ...
It is currently not known what are the best working memory training strategies to offset the age-related declines in fluid cognitive abilities. In this randomized clinical double-blind trial, older adults were randomly assigned to one of two types of working memory training – one group was trained on a predictable memory updating task (PT) and another group was trained on a novel, unpredictable memory updating task (UT). Unpredictable memory updating, compared to predictable, requires greater demands on cognitive control (Basak and Verhaeghen, 2011a). Therefore, the current study allowed us to evaluate the role of cognitive control in working memory training. All participants were assessed on a set of near and far transfer tasks at three different testing sessions – before training, immediately after the training, and 1.5 months after completing the training. Additionally, individual learning rates for a comparison working memory task (performed by both groups) and the trained task were computed. Training on unpredictable memory updating, compared to predictable, significantly enhanced performance on a measure of episodic memory, immediately after the training. Moreover, individuals with faster learning rates showed greater gains in this episodic memory task and another new working memory task; this effect was specific to UT. We propose that the unpredictable memory updating training, compared to predictable memory updating training, may a better strategy to improve selective cognitive abilities in older adults, and future studies could further investigate the role of cognitive control in working memory training.
... 18 detecting change in executive functioning is especially difficult, since accurate assessment of executive Discussion over the last several years video-game training has been investigated as a means of enhancing cognition, executive functioning, and neural plasticity in older adults. [38][39][40][41] unlike some of the "brain training" software such as nintendo Wii's big brain academy, lumosity and big brain, most commercial video-games provide a global cognitive stimulation and do not target specific cognitive domains. rise of nations, Medal of honor, pac Man, donkey-Kong, tetris, and atari video-games have Conclusions to conclude, interactive video-games provide combined cognitive-motor stimulation and therefore may have potential to maintain and improve executive functioning of individuals with chronic stroke. ...
Background:
Executive function deficits negatively impact independence and participation in everyday life of individuals with chronic stroke. Therefore, it is important to explore therapeutic interventions to improve executive functions. Our aim was to determine the effectiveness of a 3- month interactive video-game group intervention compared to a traditional motor group intervention for improving executive functions in individuals with chronic stroke.
Design:
This study is a secondary analysis of a single-blind randomized controlled trial for improving factors related to physical activity of individuals with chronic stroke. Assessments were administered pre and post the intervention and at 3-months follow-up by assessors blind to treatment allocation.
Methods:
Thirty-nine individuals with chronic stroke with executive function deficits participated in an interactive video-game group intervention (N=20) or a traditional group intervention (N=19). The intervention included two, 1-hour group sessions per week for three months, either playing video-games or performing traditional exercises/activities. Executive function deficits were assessed using The Trail Making Test (Parts A and B) and by two performance-based assessments; the Bill Paying Task from The Executive Function Performance Test (EFPT) and the Executive Function Route-Finding Task (EFRT).
Results:
Following intervention, scores for the Bill Paying Task (EFPT) decreased by 27.5% and 36.6% for the participants in the video-game and traditional intervention (respectively) (F=17.3, P<0.000) and continued to decrease in the video-game group with small effect sizes. Small-medium effect size for the TMT-B (F=0.003, p=0.954) and EFRT (F=1.2, p=0.28), without statistical significance difference.
Conclusion:
Interactive video-games provide combined cognitive-motor stimulation and therefore have potential to improve executive functioning of individuals with chronic stroke. Further research is needed.
