The effect of expertise, training and neurostimulation on sensory-motor skill in esports

Adam J Toth,Niall Ramsbottom,Christophe Constantin,Alain Milliet,Mark J Campbell

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106782

Abstract

Recently, increased attention has been directed to the brain to better understand how motor skill expertise develops. One promising technique purported to accelerate motor skill improvement is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). While simple fine motor tasks involving the hands and fingers are most frequently used to investigate the role of tDCS on motor skill learning, less work has examined the role of tDCS on complex sensori-motor tasks applicable to occupational, sport, and daily living activities. Esports require a high degree of sensori-motor control and have become one of the most popular forms of digital entertainment worldwide. Currently, no research has quantified the development of motor skill expertise in esports or whether tDCS can enhance skill improvement. The current study aimed to first differentiate the sensorimotor performance of a key gameplay skill among esports players of different skill levels. Secondly, we quantified the training effect on performance. Finally, we investigated the effect of tDCS on performance improvements. We hypothesized that esport players would perform superiorly compared to novice gamers, that all groups would be able to improve their performance through training, and that tDCS would enhance training induced performance improvements. We found that performance on a single fundamental esport skill can differentiate expertise among novice and skilled players, that training can significantly improve performance among all expertise levels and that tDCS preferentially accelerates the performance improvements of novice players. The implications of this work, specifically regarding the temporal application of tDCS during complex motor skill learning and rehabilitation, are discussed.

Highlights

Sensory-motor control is one of the largest topics in the field of neurophysiology and beyond, and its diverse application to healthy aging, neuro-motor rehabilitation, and sport performance justifies the breadth and depth of the attention it receives
While no interaction (F(6,116) = 0.821, p = 0.556, η2 = 0.045) or main effect for Training group (F(3,116) = 0.645, p = 0.588, η2 = 0.018) was found for the combined DPI and in-game mouse sensitivity (D-Sens) chosen by participants, a main effect of Expertise (F(2,116) = 24.886, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.322) was found and post hoc simple effects revealed that Non Gamers (NGs) used a significantly higher D-Sens compared Low Skill Gamer (LSG) (p < 0.001) who used a significantly higher D-Sens compared to High Skill Gamer (HSG) (p = 0.046)
Post hoc analyses revealed that participants in higher skill groups performed significantly better on all variables except Time on Target (ToT), where both LSGs and HSGs performed superiorly compared to NGs (p < 0.001) but did not differ in performance compared to each other (p = 0.978)(Fig. 5)

Summary

Introduction

Sensory-motor control is one of the largest topics in the field of neurophysiology and beyond, and its diverse application to healthy aging, neuro-motor rehabilitation, and sport performance justifies the breadth and depth of the attention it receives. Motor skill acquisition is typically achieved with prolonged training, and the resulting perfor mance gains typically comprise an improved speed-accuracy relation ship and/or a reduction in performance variability (Shmuelof et al, 2012). The perfor mance improvements that accrue over these shorter time periods, such as within a single training session or day, are typically referred to as online learning. Over time, such as over several hours, days or training sessions, motor memories may transition to a consolidation phase (Stickgold, 2005). Research has quantified the difference in performance between novice and experts on a given motor task as well as the acquisition of motor skill over time within individuals. More work is looking to the underpinning neural corre lates and mechanisms to further our understanding of motor skill acquisition (Espenhahn et al, 2020; Koch et al, 2020; Krakauer & Mazzoni, 2011; Park et al, 2015; Yarrow et al, 2009)

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