Abstract
Mindfulness training has been shown to improve attention and change the underlying brain substrates in adults. Most mindfulness training programs involve a myriad of techniques, and it is difficult to attribute changes to any particular aspect of the program. Here, we created a video game, Tenacity, which models a specific mindfulness technique – focused attention on one’s breathing – and assessed its potential to train an attentional network in adolescents. A combined analysis of resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) yielded convergent results – change in communication within the left fronto-parietal network after two weeks of playing Tenacity compared to a control game. Rs-FC analysis showed greater connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in the Tenacity group. Importantly, changes in left dlPFC – IPC rs-FC and changes in structural connectivity of the white matter tract that connects these regions –left superior longitudinal fasiculus (SLF) – were associated with changes in performance on an attention task. Finally, changes in left dlPFC – IPC rs-FC correlated with the change in left SLF structural connectivity as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) in the Tenacity group only.
Highlights
Mindfulness training has been shown to improve attention and change the underlying brain substrates in adults
The present study examined the effects of video-game-based mindfulness training in an adolescent population using a longitudinal, randomized design
Rs-FC analysis showed a greater increase in connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in the Tenacity group compared to the control group after two weeks of game-play
Summary
Mindfulness training has been shown to improve attention and change the underlying brain substrates in adults. We created a video game, Tenacity, which models a specific mindfulness technique – focused attention on one’s breathing – and assessed its potential to train an attentional network in adolescents. At the same time there is a growing recognition of the potentially deleterious effects of video games, including problems in attention, in adolescents[7]. It is especially in light of these data that we wished to explore whether we could develop a video game incorporating simple mindfulness practices that might improve attention. We developed a video game - Tenacity - that incorporates a simple mindfulness meditation technique into its game mechanics and we assessed the game’s impact on attention in adolescents.
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