Acute and Long-Lasting Cortical Thickness Changes Following Intensive First-Person Action Videogame Practice.

Acute and Long-Lasting Cortical Thickness Changes Following Intensive First-Person Action Videogame Practice. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Jun 23;: Authors: Momi D, Smeralda C, Sprugnoli G, Ferrone S, Rossi S, Rossi A, Di Lorenzo G, Santarnecchi E Abstract Recent evidence shows how an extensive gaming experience might positively impact cognitive and perceptual functioning, leading to brain structural changes observed in cross-sectional studies. Importantly, changes seem to be game-specific, reflecting gameplay styles and therefore opening to the possibility of tailoring videogames according to rehabilitation and enhancement purposes. However, whether if such brain effects can be induced even with limited gaming experience, and whether if they can outlast the gaming period, is still unknown. Here we quantified both cognitive and grey matter thickness changes following 15 daily gaming sessions based on a modified version of a 3D first-person shooter (FPS) played in laboratory settings. Twenty-nine healthy participants were randomly assigned to a control or a gaming group and underwent a cognitive assessment, an in-game performance evaluation and structural magnetic resonance imaging before (T0), immediately after (T1) and three months after the end of the experiment (T2). At T1, a significant increase in thickness of the bilateral parahippocampal cortex (PHC), somatosensory cortex (S1), superior parietal lobule (SPL) and right insula were obs...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research