Brain responses during strategic online gaming of varying proficiencies: Implications for better gaming

Abstract

BackgroundOnline gaming is a complex and competitive activity. However, little attention has been paid to brain activities relating to gaming proficiency.MethodsIn the current study, fMRI data were obtained from 70 subjects while they were playing online games. Based on their playing, we selected 24 clips from each subject for three levels of gaming proficiency (good, poor, and average), with each clip lasting for 8 seconds.ResultsWhen comparing the brain responses during the three conditions, good‐play trials, relative to poor‐ or average‐play trials, were associated with greater activation of the declive, postcentral gyrus, and striatum. In post‐hoc analyses taking the identified clusters as regions of interest to calculate their functional connectivity, activation of the declive during good‐play conditions was associated with that in the precentral gyrus and thalamus, and activation in the striatum was associated with that in the inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal cortex.ConclusionsTaken together, findings suggest specific regional brain activations and functional connectivity patterns involving brain regions and circuits involved in sensory, motor, automatic and executive functioning and their coordination are associated with better gaming. Specifically, for basic functions, such as simple reaction, motor control, and motor coordination, people need to perform them automatically; for highly cognitive functions, such as plan and strategic playing, people need to engage more executive functions in finishing these works. The automatically processed basic functions spare cognitive resources for the highly cognitive functions, which facilitates their gaming behaviors.

Physiological and Cognitive Functions Following a Discrete Session of Competitive Esports Gaming

“…Our findings may also be relevant to informing those interested in maximizing gaming performance in competitive esports. A functional MRI (fMRI) study showed that activation in areas of the brain implicated in executive control was associated with better gaming performance (Wang et al, 2018). Our findings of reduced executive functioning accuracy after hourslong gameplay may indicate the need for breaks in gaming in order to mitigate what might be a type of cognitive fatigue.…”

Effective Gamification of the Stop-Signal Task: Two Controlled Laboratory Experiments

“…Specifically, similar to the SST, we would expect the right prefrontal cortex to play a crucial role in stopping performance during the SSG and, in contrast to the SST, other areas more responsible for visual information processing should show increased activity during the SSG [ 65 , 66 , 96 - 100 ]. In addition, recent evidence suggests that performance differences in video games translate to differential brain activity [ 101 ]. Thus, future neuropsychological studies might have to take the individual baseline performance and brain activity into account.…”

Decreased effective connection from the parahippocampal gyrus to the prefrontal cortex in Internet gaming disorder: A MVPA and spDCM study

“…We recruited 103 subjects with IGD (57 males) and 99 recreational game users (RGUs) (51 males) through posters and Internet advertisements ( Table 1). Part of the data in this study comes from our previous study (Wang et al, 2018a(Wang et al, , 2018b with 64 IGD subjects and 63 RGUs. Although there is overlap in subjects, however, all statistical methods are different and the results have no overlap with previous findings.…”

“…Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been defined as a typical behavioral addiction characterized by compulsive game seeking, uncontrolled game playing, and the decision to play despite negative consequences ( Dong, Li, Wang, & Potenza, 2017 ; Petry & O" Brien, 2013 ; Petry et al, 2014 ). In spite of numerous neuroimage studies associated with this condition ( Dong, Lin, Hu, Xie, & Du, 2015 ; Kim et al, 2015 ; Wang, Dong, Wang, Zheng, & Potenza, 2018 ; Zheng et al, 2019 ), the pathological mechanisms of IGD remain elusive. The investigation of the neurobiological substrates of IGD is a fundamental point that will shed light on the underlying mechanisms of the condition.…”