You can read how researchers from the Centre for Vision Research at 91亚色聽used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the effect of video-game experience on the neural control of increasingly complex visuomotor tasks in young men, in the October issue of , an Elsevier journal, wrote :
Lead author and PhD candidate Joshua Granek and colleagues concluded that the reorganization of the brain鈥檚 cortical network, which聽they discovered in the young men with significant video game-playing experience, gave them an advantage not only in playing video games but also in performing other complex visuomotor tasks.
The authors wrote that other studies have suggested that individuals skilled in video game-playing have a more efficient brain network for controlling movement that includes the prefrontal, premotor, primary sensorimotor and parietal cortices.
Senior investigator Lauren Sergio, a professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health, told the press that using high-resolution brain imaging, they were able to measure which brain areas were active at given times during the experiment. And, she said, rather than just looking at brain activity, they also 鈥渢ested how the skills learned from video game experience can transfer over to new tasks鈥.
A key result was finding that during the increasingly difficult tasks, the less experienced video game players relied mostly on the parietal cortex (the brain area typically involved in hand-eye coordination), while the brain scans of the experienced gamers showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain.
The study was also covered in on Sept. 27, on Sept. 26., Sept. 27 and on Sept. 26.
Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.