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Brain Plasticity and Video Games
Investigators: Riccardo Pedersini, Indu Vedamurthy, Ashley Anderson, Elizabeth Klobusicky, Katie Medford, and Ted Jacques, in collaboration with C.S. Green, Zhonglin Lu, W. Makous, U. Polat, A. Pouget, V. Rao Bejjanki, and B. Hubert-Wallander
Project
Overview
We have recently shown that playing first person point of view action video games affects several aspects of perception, attention, and cognition. The skills found to be enhanced by action video game training, so far, include low-level vision (enhanced contrast sensitivity function), various aspects of attention (ability to monitor several objects at once, to search through a cluttered scene, to detect an event of interest in fast-forwarding video), more complex task constructs (multi-tasking, task-switching) and, finally, a general speeding of perceptual processing. This work illustrates how skilled performance in a variety of processing domains can be enhanced by a single training regimen. Practical implications of this finding, such as vocational training (e.g., for laparoscopic surgeons) or clinical rehabilitation are being investigated.
Importantly, not all video games have these effects; for the skills studies so far, action games lead to greater benefits than other entertainment games. By studying the impact of various types of video games on brain function, we aim to determine which aspects of performance can be altered by experience and to characterize the factors that favor the transfer of learning. Behavioral investigations are combined with brain imaging techniques to allow a more direct characterization of the brain systems that are modified by video game playing.
Web Demos
To view web-based demos of the tasks used in these experiments,
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Related Publications
- For related publications from our lab, please visit our Publications
page here.
Related Projects
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