Bulletin of ANPA

Abstract submitted to ANPA Conference July 14–16, 2023

Volume 5, Number 1

Biological, Medical, Soft Matter and Chemical Physics

Abstract ID: ANPA2023-N00037

Abstract:

ANPA2023-N00037: Connectivity in the Left Dorsal Stream is Enchanced in Video Gamers

Authors:

• Kyle J Cahill; Georgia State University

• Dr. Mukesh Dhamala; Georgia State University

Video games provide sensory-rich, vision-dominated, competitive environments, in which players are continually challenged for moment-to-moment spatial navigation and decision-making. Recent studies have shown that video game players (gamers) enjoy the cognitive benefit of an increased reaction time, compared to non-gamers in making vision-based sensorimotor decisions. Hypotheses for how the brain processes visual information include the ‘two-streams’ model in which the visual pathway is bifurcated into dorsal and ventral streams. However, it is still unknown if video game playing can influence structural and functional changes in the visual streams of the brain. Here in this study, we examined the structural connectivity of the dorsal and ventral streams in gamers compared with non-gamers. After utilizing a Wilcoxson test on the metrics obtained from diffusion spectral imaging (DSI) analysis, we found that white matter tracts in the left dorsal stream between the left superior occipital gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobule were enhanced in video gamers indicated by elevated fractional anisotropy (FA) and normalized quantitative anisotropy (NQA) measures. The functional connectivity between the left superior occipital gyrus and the left superior parietal lobule was enhanced in video game players. Together the enhanced structural and functional connectivity within the left occipital-parietal regions in the visual stream may provide insight into the structural and functional basis for the beneficial effects of video game playing experience and may help explain the improved behavioral performance of video gamers in vision-based sensorimotor decision-making tasks.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: https://anpaglobal.org/conference/2023/ANPA2023-N00037