Search

Humans show a remarkable capacity to navigate various environments using different navigation strategies, and we know that strategy changes across the life span. However, this observation has been based on studies of small sample sizes. To this end, we used a mobile app-based video game (Sea Hero Quest) to test virtual navigation strategies and memory performance within a distinct radial arm maze level in over 37,000 participants. Players were presented with six pathways (three open and three closed) and were required to navigate to the three open pathways to collect a target. Next, all six pathways were made available and the player was required to visit the pathways that were previously unavailable. Both reference memory and working memory errors were calculated. Crucially, at the end of the level, the player was asked a multiple-choice question about how they found the targets (i.e., a counting-dependent strategy vs. a landmark-dependent strategy). As predicted from previous laboratory studies, we found the use of landmarks declined linearly with age. Those using landmark-based strategies also performed better on reference memory than those using a counting-based strategy. These results extend previous observations in the laboratory showing a decreased use of landmark-dependent strategies with age., (© 2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

Objective: We aim to investigate the direction of causality of the association between adolescent video game playing and later development of ADHD symptoms using a population-based sample of Canadian Youth., Method: The present study is based on longitudinal cohort data ( N = 1,467). Youth self-reported weekly hours of video game playing as well as ADHD symptoms at both 12 and 13 years of age., Results: Cross-lagged panel model were estimated to examine how adolescent video game playing prospectively contributes to ADHD symptoms while simultaneously considering how adolescent ADHD symptoms may prospectively contribute to videogame playing. Analyses revealed a significant positive association between adolescent video games playing at age 12 and ADHD symptoms at age 13. Youth ADHD symptoms at age 12 did not predict video game use at age 13., Conclusion: Our results help clarify the direction of causality of the association between video game playing and ADHD symptoms and provide evidence that video game playing can represent a risk factor for the development of attention problems in early adolescence.

Aging is associated with cognitive decline and decreased capacity to inhibit distracting information. Video game training holds promise to increase inhibitory mechanisms in older adults. In the current study, we tested the impact of 3D-platform video game training on performance in an antisaccade task and on related changes in grey matter within the frontal eye fields (FEFs) of older adults. An experimental group (VID group) engaged in 3D-platform video game training over a period of 6 months, while an active control group was trained on piano lessons (MUS group), and a no-contact control group did not participate in any intervention (CON group). Increased performance in oculomotor inhibition, as measured by the antisaccade task, and increased grey matter in the right FEF was observed uniquely in the VID group. These results demonstrate that 3D-platform video game training can improve inhibitory control known to decline with age.

Action video game players (aVGPs) display increased performance in attention-based tasks and enhanced procedural motor learning. In parallel, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is centrally implicated in specific types of reward-based learning and attentional control, the execution or inhibition of motor commands, and error detection. These processes are hypothesized to support aVGP in-game performance and enhanced learning though in-game feedback. We, therefore, tested the hypothesis that habitual aVGPs would display increased cortical thickness compared with nonvideo game players (nonVGPs). Results showed that the aVGP group (n=17) displayed significantly higher levels of cortical thickness specifically in the dorsal ACC compared with the nonVGP group (n=16). Results are discussed in the context of previous findings examining video game experience, attention/performance, and responses to affective components such as pain and fear.

Maintaining grey matter within the hippocampus is important for healthy cognition. Playing 3D-platform video games has previously been shown to promote grey matter in the hippocampus in younger adults. In the current study, we tested the impact of 3D-platform video game training (i.e., Super Mario 64) on grey matter in the hippocampus, cerebellum, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of older adults. Older adults who were 55 to 75 years of age were randomized into three groups. The video game experimental group (VID; n = 8) engaged in a 3D-platform video game training over a period of 6 months. Additionally, an active control group took a series of self-directed, computerized music (piano) lessons (MUS; n = 12), while a no-contact control group did not engage in any intervention (CON; n = 13). After training, a within-subject increase in grey matter within the hippocampus was significant only in the VID training group, replicating results observed in younger adults. Active control MUS training did, however, lead to a within-subject increase in the DLPFC, while both the VID and MUS training produced growth in the cerebellum. In contrast, the CON group displayed significant grey matter loss in the hippocampus, cerebellum and the DLPFC.

Action video game playing is associated with improved visuomotor performance; however, the underlying neural mechanisms associated with this increased performance are not well understood. Using the Serial Reaction Time Task in conjunction with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, we investigated if improved visuomotor performance displayed in action video game players (actionVGPs) was associated with increased corticospinal plasticity in primary motor cortex (M1) compared to non-video game players (nonVGPs). Further, we assessed if actionVGPs and nonVGPs displayed differences in procedural motor learning as measured by the SRTT. We found that at the behavioral level, both the actionVGPs and nonVGPs showed evidence of procedural learning with no significant difference between groups. However, the actionVGPs displayed higher visuomotor performance as evidenced by faster reaction times in the SRTT. This observed enhancement in visuomotor performance amongst actionVGPs was associated with increased corticospinal plasticity in M1, as measured by corticospinal excitability changes pre- and post- SRTT and corticospinal excitability at rest before motor practice. Our results show that aVGPs, who are known to have better performance on visual and motor tasks, also display increased corticospinal excitability after completing a novel visuomotor task., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The habitual playing of video games is associated with increased grey matter and activity in the striatum. Studies in humans and rodents have shown an inverse relationship between grey matter in the striatum and hippocampus. We investigated whether action video game playing is also associated with increased use of response learning strategies during navigation, known to be dependent on the caudate nucleus of the striatum, when presented in a dual solution task. We tested 26 action video game players (actionVGPs) and 33 non-action video game players (nonVGPs) on the 4-on-8 virtual maze and a visual attention event-related potential (ERP) task, which elicits a robust N-2-posterior-controlateral (N2pc) component. We found that actionVGPs had a significantly higher likelihood of using a response learning strategy (80.76%) compared to nonVGPs (42.42%). Consistent with previous evidence, actionVGPs and nonVGPs differed in the way they deployed visual attention to central and peripheral targets as observed in the elicited N2pc component during an ERP visual attention task. Increased use of the response strategy in actionVGPs is consistent with previously observed increases in striatal volume in video game players (VGPs). Using response strategies is associated with decreased grey matter in the hippocampus. Previous studies have shown that decreased volume in the hippocampus precedes the onset of many neurological and psychiatric disorders. If actionVGPs have lower grey matter in the hippocampus, as response learners normally do, then these individuals could be at increased risk of developing neurological and psychiatric disorders during their lifetime., (© 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.)

Action video games have been show to affect a variety of visual and cognitive processes. There is, however, little evidence of whether playing video games can also affect motor action. To investigate the potential link between experience playing action video games and changes in oculomotor action, we tested habitual action video game players (VGPs) and non-video game players (NVGPs) in a saccadic trajectory deviation task. We demonstrate that spatial curvature of a saccadic trajectory towards or away from distractor is profoundly different between VGPs and NVGPs. In addition, task performance accuracy improved over time only in VGPs. Results are discussed in the context of the competing interplay between stimulus-driven motor programming and top-down inhibition during oculomotor execution., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Visuospatial experience, the prolonged engagement in a demanding visual task, obtained through action video game play enhances several visual and cognitive processes. The underlying mechanisms involved in these processes, however, remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that experience with action video games modulates early sensory processing, resulting in increases sensitivity to salient visual events that capture attention. In two experiments, we show using a Temporal Order Judgment (TOJ) and a Signal Detection Paradigm (d') that action video game players show greater sensitivity to exogenous sensory events in the visual array. These results suggest that visuospatial experience modulates the earliest sensory aspects of visual processing.

Research examining the impact of video games on neural systems has largely focused on visual attention and motor control. Recent evidence now shows that video games can also impact the hippocampal memory system. Further, action and 3D-platform video-game genres are thought to have differential impacts on this system. In this review, we examine the specific design elements unique to either action or 3D-platform video games and break down how they could either favor or discourage use of the hippocampal memory system during gameplay. Analysis is based on well-established principles of hippocampus-dependent and non-hippocampus-dependent forms of learning from the human and rodent literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitual action video game experience is associated with both increased grey matter and activity in the striatum and decreased grey matter in the hippocampus. To further investigate this relationship, we tested differences in resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between action video games players (actionVGPs) compared to non-video game players (NVGPs) using the hippocampus, the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens as regions of interest. Seventeen actionVGPs and 16 NVGPs were scanned using fMRI to measure rsFC. Results show that when compared to NVGPs, actionVGPs have increased rsFC between the nucleus accumbens and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and between the caudate nucleus and the precentral gyrus. ActionVGPs also displayed decreased rsFC between the hippocampus and the superior temporal gyrus and between the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area. Together, these results follow previous research examining changes in grey matter and suggest that frequent action video game playing is associated with higher functional activity in the reward circuit and lower functional activity within the hippocampus. • Action video game players show increased resting state functional connectivity in brain structures within the reward system. • Action video game players display decreased resting state functional connectivity within circuits involving the hippocampus. • These results support previous research findings examining grey matter changes in action video game players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]