QEEG-based neural correlates of decision making in a well-trained eight year-old chess player

Abstract

The neurocognitive substrates of decision making (DM) in the context of chess has appealed to researchers' interest for decades. Expert and beginner chess players are hypothesized to employ different brain functional networks when involved in episodes of critical DM upon chess. Cognitive capacities including, but not restricted to pattern recognition, visuospatial search, reasoning, planning and DM are perhaps the key determinants of rewarding and judgmental decisions in chess. Meanwhile, the precise neural correlates of DM in this context has largely remained elusive. The quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) is an investigation tool possessing a proper temporal resolution in the study of neural correlates of cognitive tasks at cortical level. Here, we used a 22-channel EEG setup and digital polygraphy in a well-trained 8 year-old boy while engaged in playing chess against the computer. Quantitative analyses were done to map and source-localize the EEG signals. Our analyses indicated a lower power spectral density (PSD) for higher frequency bands in the right hemisphere upon DM-related epochs. Moreover, the information flow upon DM blocks in this particular case was more of posterior towards anterior brain regions.

The clinical image of memory, attention, and executive functions in a school-aged child with autoimmune epilepsy: A case study

“…The present research focuses on explaining neurocognitive disorders from the point of view of microgenetic theory using modern neurotechnology, such as quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and event-related potentials (Alipour, Seifzadeh, Aligholi et al 2017;Pąchalska, Kaczmarek & Kropotov 2014;Pąchalska, Góral -Półrola, Mueller et al 2017;Sowndhararajan, Kim, Deepa et al 2018). Results from QEEG point to the presence of neuronal correlates of the clinical image of disorders in children with epilepsy (Ouyang, Chiang, Yang et al 2018;Lin, Ouyang, Chiang et al 2014), ADHD (Kropotov, Grin-Yatsenko, Ponoma rev et al 2005;Tye, Asherson, Ashwood et al, 2014), and ASD syndrome (Kozhush ko, Nagornova, Evdokimov et al 2018).…”

Neurology, psychiatry and the chess game: a narrative review

“…In 2017, Alipour et al published a case report on the use of quantitative electroencephalography in an eight-year-old boy with substantial chess training while he was playing chess against a computer. The authors observed a lower power spectral density in higher frequency bands in the right hemisphere in decision making during the game 30 .…”