Abstract
Increasing behavioural evidence suggests that expert video game players (VGPs) show enhanced visual attention and visuospatial abilities, but what underlies these enhancements remains unclear. We administered the Poffenberger paradigm with concurrent electroencephalogram (EEG) recording to assess occipital N1 latencies and interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT) in expert VGPs. Participants comprised 15 right-handed male expert VGPs and 16 non-VGP controls matched for age, handedness, IQ and years of education. Expert VGPs began playing before age 10, had a minimum 8 years experience, and maintained playtime of at least 20 hours per week over the last 6 months. Non-VGPs had little-to-no game play experience (maximum 1.5 years). Participants responded to checkerboard stimuli presented to the left and right visual fields while 128-channel EEG was recorded. Expert VGPs responded significantly more quickly than non-VGPs. Expert VGPs also had significantly earlier occipital N1s in direct visual pathways (the hemisphere contralateral to the visual field in which the stimulus was presented). IHTT was calculated by comparing the latencies of occipital N1 components between hemispheres. No significant between-group differences in electrophysiological estimates of IHTT were found. Shorter N1 latencies may enable expert VGPs to discriminate attended visual stimuli significantly earlier than non-VGPs and contribute to faster responding in visual tasks. As successful video-game play requires precise, time pressured, bimanual motor movements in response to complex visual stimuli, which in this sample began during early childhood, these differences may reflect the experience and training involved during the development of video-game expertise, but training studies are needed to test this prediction.
Highlights
Playing video-games has become a past-time of choice for current generations, allowing individuals to engage both socially and competitively with other players across the globe
Expert video game players (VGPs) showed no directional advantage for interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT), indicating relatively equilateral transfer of visual information across the corpus callosum in the two directions
Non-VGPs showed a similar degree of symmetry in their IHTTs for transfer of visual information
Summary
Playing video-games has become a past-time of choice for current generations, allowing individuals to engage both socially and competitively with other players across the globe. Beginning with the seminal findings of Green and Bavelier [1], expert video-game players (VGPs) have been shown to have superior performance on a wide-range of visuospatial and attentional tasks. There are clear differences in the skills involved in expert musicianship and expert video-game play, both proficiencies require the translation of complex visual cues into precise bi-manual motor movements and the adjustment of performance based on sensory feedback In both forms of expertise, training often begins during early childhood and continues through much of adolescence, a period in which the brain is most malleable and continues to develop. The objective of the following study was to use EEG to examine components of the underlying neurophysiological basis of visuospatial and attentional performance of expert VGPs. we examined callosal functioning of expert VGPs on a task that required transfer of simple visual information as well as absolute occipital N1 latencies. This was primarily to test whether this sample of VGPs showed the usual advantage in speed of responding and reduced effects of hand dominance on response speed
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