SGER: Neural correlates of action videogame training: An exploratory fMRI study

视觉是人们用来与外部环境互动并了解外部环境的主要感官形式。有行为证据表明，即使是相对较短的动作视频游戏训练也可以提高某些视觉能力的表现，特别是那些允许人们分析环境中物体之间空间关系的能力。例如，在动作视频游戏训练之后，人们能够跟踪视觉世界中移动的物体比以前更多。这项探索性研究解决了目前认识上的三个差距。首先，动作视频游戏训练可以提高的全部视觉能力仍然是未知的。其次，目前尚不清楚这种训练是否可以在视觉任务中提高学习速度，例如那些涉及预测空间位置序列的任务。第三，人们对大脑的变化知之甚少，而这些变化正是促成这种改善的原因。这项拟议中的研究将测量一组参与者（使用功能性磁共振成像）在两周的动作视频游戏训练期之前和之后的视觉任务中的表现和大脑激活。表现和大脑激活变化的模式将揭示特定的视觉和学习能力以及通过视频游戏训练改变的大脑网络。拟议的研究将提供初步数据，可能导致对社会重要的基于训练的应用。具体来说，在动作视频游戏练习后可以提高的视觉空间能力在广泛的职业中使用。例如，数学家，工程师，建筑师和许多其他经常从事需要执行复杂心理空间转换的任务的人可能会从动作视频游戏训练中受益。这项研究可能最终导致开发有效的训练视频游戏，最大限度地利用成人大脑的可塑性。关于这些过程的精确神经基础的信息也可能导致创新的教育实践，增强学习能力本身，帮助视觉空间学习障碍的人，如注意力缺陷障碍，甚至未来的药理学方法来提高表现。

Vision is the dominant sensory modality that people use to interact with the external environment and to learn about it. There is behavioral evidence that even relatively short periods of training with action video games can improve performance on some kinds of visual abilities, especially those that allow people to analyze spatial relationships among objects in the environment. For example, after action video game training, people are able to keep track of more objects moving around in the visual world than they could before. This exploratory research addresses three gaps in current understanding. First, the full range of visual abilities that can be improved by action video game training remains unknown. Second, it is not known whether such training could improve learning speed itself during visual tasks, such as those that involve predicting sequences of spatial locations. Third, little is known about the brain changes that enable such improvements. The proposed research will measure performance and brain activation in a group of participants (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) on a battery of visual tasks before and after a two-week action video game training period. The pattern of performance and brain activation changes will reveal the specific visual and learning abilities and brain networks that are modified by video game training.The proposed study will provide preliminary data potentially leading to training-based applications that are important for society. Specifically, the visuospatial abilities that can be improved after action video game practice are used in a broad range of professions. For instance, mathematicians, engineers, architects and many other individuals routinely engaged in tasks that require performing complex mental spatial transformations may benefit from action video game training. This research may be eventually lead to developing effective training video games that maximally take advantage of adult brain plasticity. Information about the precise neural bases of these processes may also lead to innovative educational practices that enhance learning abilities themselves, help people with visuospatial learning disabilities, as in attention deficit disorder, or even to future pharmacological methods to improve performance.