Psychophysiological stress response of adolescent chess players during problem-solving tasks

Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro; Pereira, Telmo; Castro, Maria António; Santos, António Carvalho; Villafaina, Santos

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112609

Cited by 28 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In the same way, when comparing two performance groups, Zakrzewska and Brzezicka [30] found that the more difficult the working memory tasks, the greater the theta power. A previous study of adolescent chess players showed increments in the theta power spectrum when the difficulty of the task was raised [11]. In the present study, the winning group was able to adapt to each chess game situation, increasing theta power when the opponent's difficulty increased.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…First, there will be differences between those who win (winning group) and those who lose (losing group), as observed by a previous study [18]. Second, we hypothesize that theta power will increase when task difficulty increases [11,16]. Lastly, alpha and beta activity will decrease when task difficulty increases [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Thus, researchers have focused on investigating mental load or activation patterns during different chess modalities, such as solving chess problems [3] where chess players showed activation of frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas [4][5][6]. In addition, previous researchers have studied the impact of cognitive load in the autonomic modulation or electroencephalographic (EEG) signal [7][8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For that reason, theta has been considered a potential indicator of cognitive effort or could be an indicator of success in cognitive tasks [18]. The alpha band (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) decreased during arithmetic tasks [15] and increased during creative thinking in prefrontal and parietal cortical areas [19]. Also, studies have found that right parietal alpha and beta (13-30 Hz) activity decreased in inverse relation to task difficulty [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies in chess have evaluated the psychophysiological response in different situations in order to study the stress or decision-making process among others [7][8][9][10][11]22]. However, the psychophysiological response of chess players who win or lose has never been explored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study

Fuentes-García

Villafaina

Collado-Mateo

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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The present study aimed to analyze differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (theta, alpha, and beta) between participants who won (winning group) and those who lost (losing group) in three different chess games: against their same Elo (100% chess games), 25% over their Elo (125% chess games), and 25% under their Elo (75% chess games). EEG was assessed at baseline and during the chess games. Method: 14 male chess players (age: 35.36 ± 13.77 and Elo: 1921 ± 170) played three games of 3 min, plus two additional seconds per move, while EEG was assessed. There were three difficulty levels (75%, 100%, and 125%), with two games (one with white pieces and another with black pieces) per level. The winning group showed higher theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain regions when difficulty increased (p-value < 0.05). Besides this, alpha power showed higher values (p-value < 0.05) in 125% games than in 75% chess games in C3, T3, T4, T5, and T6. The losing group showed a significant decrease (p-value < 0.05) in the beta and alpha power spectrum in frontal, central, parietotemporal, and occipital areas, when the opponent’s difficulty increased. Moreover, between groups, analyses showed higher theta power in the losing group than in the winning group, in C3, T5, T6, P4, and Pz (p-value < 0.05). Therefore, the winning group was able to adapt to each difficulty level, increasing theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain areas, as the efficiency hypothesis postulated. These changes were not observed in the losing group. Moreover, increases in alpha power during the most difficult games, in comparison with the easier, could have been caused by creative ideation and divergent thinking, as participants looked for alternative solutions against a higher-skilled opponent.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%