Abstract
One major characteristic of experts is intuitive judgment, which is an automatic process whereby patterns stored in memory through long-term training are recognized. Indeed, long-term training may influence brain structure and function. A recent study revealed that chess experts at rest showed differences in structure and functional connectivity (FC) in the head of caudate, which is associated with rapid best next-move generation. However, less is known about the structure and function of the brains of Baduk experts (BEs) compared with those of experts in other strategy games. Therefore, we performed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and FC analyses in BEs to investigate structural brain differences and to clarify the influence of these differences on functional interactions. We also conducted graph theoretical analysis (GTA) to explore the topological organization of whole-brain functional networks. Compared to novices, BEs exhibited decreased and increased gray matter volume (GMV) in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens (NA), respectively. We also found increased FC between the amygdala and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and decreased FC between the NA and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Further GTA revealed differences in measures of the integration of the network and in the regional nodal characteristics of various brain regions activated during Baduk. This study provides evidence for structural and functional differences as well as altered topological organization of the whole-brain functional networks in BEs. Our findings also offer novel suggestions about the cognitive mechanisms behind Baduk expertise, which involves intuitive decision-making mediated by somatic marker circuitry and visuospatial processing.
Highlights
Significant negative correlations were observed between the degree of gray matter volume (GMV) reduction in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) adjacent to the gyrus rectus and training duration in Baduk experts (BEs) (p < 0.001, r = −0.802) (Table 2; Figures 1B,C)
FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY BEs showed increased functional connectivity (FC) in the right AMY seed and left mOFC, and decreased FC in the right nucleus accumbens (NA) seed and right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) compared to novices (Table 2; Figure 2B)
As interfaces between the cognitive and affective components of the limbic cortico– striatal loop, the AMY and NA are involved in implicit processing and goal-directed adaptive behavior under changing environmental conditions
Summary
Board games such as chess have been studied by researchers from a variety of fields, such as economics (Levitt et al, 2011), computer science (Bouzy and Cazenave, 2001; Cai et al, 2010), and cognitive science (de Groot, 1965; Chase and Simon, 1973), because of the similarity between board games and real life in terms of the need to engage in decision-making and adaptive behavior to achieve specific goals under changing environmental conditions. Board-game players with the highest level of skill, known as grand masters, are considered cognitive experts who develop the knowledge structures used in problem solving in a given domain through long periods of deliberate practice (Chase and Simon, 1973) Using these knowledge structures, called chunks, templates, or schemas (Chase and Simon, 1973; Gobet and Charness, 2006), experts can rapidly match the patterns they have learned and make faster and better decisions. This shows how experts can make extremely rapid and favorable decisions by combining two processes: (i) an intuitive (automatic) process involving pattern matching based on past experience and (ii)
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