Abstract
Exergames are increasingly used to train both physical and cognitive functioning, but direct evidence whether and how exergames affect cortical activity is lacking. Although portable electroencephalography (EEG) can be used while exergaming, it is unknown whether brain activity will be obscured by movement artifacts. The aims of this study were to assess whether electrophysiological measurements during exergaming are feasible and if so, whether cortical activity changes with additional cognitive elements. Twenty-four young adults performed self-paced sideways leaning movements, followed by two blocks of exergaming in which participants completed a puzzle by leaning left or right to select the correct piece. At the easy level, only the correct piece was shown, while two pieces were presented at the choice level. Brain activity was recorded using a 64-channel passive EEG system. After filtering, an adaptive mixture independent component analysis identified the spatio-temporal sources of brain activity. Results showed that it is feasible to record brain activity in young adults while playing exergames. Furthermore, five spatially different clusters were identified located frontal, bilateral central, and bilateral parietal. The frontal cluster had significantly higher theta power in the exergaming condition with choice compared to self-paced leaning movements and exergaming without choice, while both central clusters showed a significant increase in absolute alpha-2 power in the exergaming conditions compared to the self-paced movements. This is the first study to show that it is feasible to record brain activity while exergaming. Furthermore, results indicated that even a simple exergame without explicit cognitive demands inherently requires cognitive processing. These results pave the way for studying brain activity during various exergames in different populations to help improve their effective use in rehabilitation settings.
Highlights
Exergames are videogames that require bodily movements by the user in order to play the game (Brox et al, 2011)
Differences between SP, the mean medio-lateral center of pressure (COP) amplitudes were of comparable magnitude across the conditions (SP: M = 33.41 cm, SD = 7.23 cm; NC: M = 38.7 cm, SD = 4.89 cm; C: M = 39.98 cm, SD = 5.32 cm), there was a main effect of condition, χ(22, N = 22) = 11.47, p = 0.003
A significant main effect for condition was found in absolute frontal theta power (F(2,12) = 5.55, p = 0.02)
Summary
Exergames are videogames that require bodily movements by the user in order to play the game (Brox et al, 2011). Exergames do address physical activity, but have the potential to influence players’ cognitive abilities as well through dual tasks, decision making tasks and discrimination tasks (Zelinski and Reyes, 2009; Anguera et al, 2013) As many of these additional tasks require multiple cognitive processes, exergames may have advantages over separate physical or cognitive interventions, as simultaneous physical activities with decisionmaking opportunities may be essential to maximize synergistic benefits (Basak et al, 2008; Yan and Zhou, 2009; AndersonHanley et al, 2012; Kraft, 2012). Anguera et al (2013) used electroencephalography (EEG) to quantify cortical processing before and after video game training, and demonstrated enhanced frontal theta power and frontoparietal theta coherence as indicators for improved cognitive processes While these studies indirectly addressed cognitive processing related to exergaming, only Baumeister et al (2010) directly assessed brain activity during exergaming in a virtual golf-putting environment. The aims of the current study were to investigate whether it is feasible to measure brain activity during gameplay using EEG and if so, whether exergames inherently require cortical processing, and whether increased cognitive demand in the exergame further changes brain activity
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