Video game play is positively correlated with well-being.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Johannes N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8074794 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Previous work has demonstrated that action video game training produces enhancements in a wide range of cognitive abilities. Here we evaluate a possible mechanism by which such breadth of enhancement could be attained: that action game training enhances learning rates in new tasks (i.e., "learning to learn"). In an initial controlled intervention study, we show that individuals who were trained on action video games subsequently exhibited faster learning in the two cognitive domains that we tested, perception and working memory, as compared to individuals who trained on non-action games. We further confirmed the causal effect of action video game play on learning ability in a pre-registered follow-up study that included a larger number of participants, blinding, and measurements of participant expectations. Together, this work highlights enhanced learning speed for novel tasks as a mechanism through which action video game interventions may broadly improve task performance in the cognitive domain.
| S-EPMC8517021 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The field of perceptual learning has identified changes in perceptual templates as a powerful mechanism mediating the learning of statistical regularities in our environment. By measuring threshold-vs.-contrast curves using an orientation identification task under varying levels of external noise, the perceptual template model (PTM) allows one to disentangle various sources of signal-to-noise changes that can alter performance. We use the PTM approach to elucidate the mechanism that underlies the wide range of improvements noted after action video game play. We show that action video game players make use of improved perceptual templates compared with nonvideo game players, and we confirm a causal role for action video game play in inducing such improvements through a 50-h training study. Then, by adapting a recent neural model to this task, we demonstrate how such improved perceptual templates can arise from reweighting the connectivity between visual areas. Finally, we establish that action gamers do not enter the perceptual task with improved perceptual templates. Instead, although performance in action gamers is initially indistinguishable from that of nongamers, action gamers more rapidly learn the proper template as they experience the task. Taken together, our results establish for the first time to our knowledge the development of enhanced perceptual templates following action game play. Because such an improvement can facilitate the inference of the proper generative model for the task at hand, unlike perceptual learning that is quite specific, it thus elucidates a general learning mechanism that can account for the various behavioral benefits noted after action game play.
| S-EPMC4250112 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundMany face-to-face and digital therapeutic supports are designed for adolescents experiencing high levels of psychological distress. However, promoting psychological well-being among adolescents is often neglected despite significant short-term and long-term benefits.ObjectiveThis research has 3 main objectives: (1) to assess the acceptability of Match Emoji, a casual video game with psychological well-being concepts among 13-15-year-old students in a New Zealand secondary school; (2) to identify the feasibility of the research process; and (3) to explore the preliminary well-being and therapeutic potential of Match Emoji.MethodsApproximately 40 participants aged 13-15 years from a local secondary college in Wellington, New Zealand, will be invited to download and play Match Emoji 3-4 times a week for 5-15 minutes over a 2-week period. Participants will complete 4 assessments at baseline, postintervention, and 3 weeks later to assess psychological well-being and therapeutic changes. Statistical analysis will be used to synthesize data from interviews and triangulated with assessment changes and game analytics. This synthesis will help to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the Match Emoji.ResultsThe key outputs from the project will include the acceptability, feasibility, and therapeutic potential of Match Emoji. It is anticipated that participants will have finished playing the recommended game play regimen by August 2021 with analysis of results completed by October 2021.ConclusionsData from the study are expected to inform future research on Match Emoji including a randomized controlled trial and further adjustments to the design and development of the game.International registered report identifier (irrid)PRR1-10.2196/31588.
| S-EPMC8391754 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Prevention of temporary threshold shift (TTS) after laboratory-based exposure to pure-tones, broadband noise, and narrowband noise signals has been achieved, but prevention of TTS under these experimental conditions may not accurately reflect protection against hearing loss following impulse noise. This study used a controlled laboratory-based TTS paradigm that incorporated impulsive stimuli into the exposure protocol; development of this model could provide a novel platform for assessing proposed therapeutics.Participants played a video game that delivered gunfire-like sound through headphones as part of a target practice game. Effects were measured using audiometric threshold evaluations and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). The sound level and number of impulses presented were sequentially increased throughout the study.Participants were normal-hearing students at the University of Florida who provided written informed consent prior to participation.TTS was not reliably induced by any of the exposure conditions assessed here. However, there was significant individual variability, and a subset of subjects showed TTS under some exposure conditions.A subset of participants demonstrated reliable threshold shifts under some conditions. Additional experiments are needed to better understand and optimize stimulus parameters that influence TTS after simulated impulse noise.
| S-EPMC4698154 | biostudies-other
Project description:Forty years have passed since video-games were first made widely available to the public and subsequently playing games has become a favorite past-time for many. Players continuously engage with dynamic visual displays with success contingent on the time-pressured deployment, and flexible allocation, of attention as well as precise bimanual movements. Evidence to date suggests that both brief and extensive exposure to video-game play can result in a broad range of enhancements to various cognitive faculties that generalize beyond the original context. Despite promise, video-game research is host to a number of methodological issues that require addressing before progress can be made in this area. Here an effort is made to consolidate the past 30 years of literature examining the effects of video-game play on cognitive faculties and, more recently, neural systems. Future work is required to identify the mechanism that allows the act of video-game play to generate such a broad range of generalized enhancements.
| S-EPMC3772618 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Abnormal visual experience during a sensitive period of development disrupts neuronal circuitry in the visual cortex and results in abnormal spatial vision or amblyopia. Here we examined whether playing video games can induce plasticity in the visual system of adults with amblyopia. Specifically 20 adults with amblyopia (age 15-61 y; visual acuity: 20/25-20/480, with no manifest ocular disease or nystagmus) were recruited and allocated into three intervention groups: action videogame group (n?=?10), non-action videogame group (n?=?3), and crossover control group (n?=?7). Our experiments show that playing video games (both action and non-action games) for a short period of time (40-80 h, 2 h/d) using the amblyopic eye results in a substantial improvement in a wide range of fundamental visual functions, from low-level to high-level, including visual acuity (33%), positional acuity (16%), spatial attention (37%), and stereopsis (54%). Using a cross-over experimental design (first 20 h: occlusion therapy, and the next 40 h: videogame therapy), we can conclude that the improvement cannot be explained simply by eye patching alone. We quantified the limits and the time course of visual plasticity induced by video-game experience. The recovery in visual acuity that we observed is at least 5-fold faster than would be expected from occlusion therapy in childhood amblyopia. We used positional noise and modelling to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the visual improvements in terms of decreased spatial distortion (7%) and increased processing efficiency (33%). Our study had several limitations: small sample size, lack of randomization, and differences in numbers between groups. A large-scale randomized clinical study is needed to confirm the therapeutic value of video-game treatment in clinical situations. Nonetheless, taken as a pilot study, this work suggests that video-game play may provide important principles for treating amblyopia, and perhaps other cortical dysfunctions.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01223716.
| S-EPMC3166159 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundVideo games designed to promote behavior change are a promising venue to enable children to learn healthier behaviors.PurposeEvaluate outcome from playing "Escape from Diab" (Diab) and "Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space" (Nano) video games on children's diet, physical activity, and adiposity.DesignTwo-group RCT; assessments occurred at baseline, immediately after Diab, immediately after Nano, and 2 months later. Data were collected in 2008-2009, and analyses were conducted in 2009-2010.Setting/participants133 children aged 10-12 years, initially between 50th percentile and 95th percentile BMI.InterventionTreatment group played Diab and Nano in sequence. Control Group played diet and physical activity knowledge-based games on popular websites.Main outcome measuresServings of fruit, vegetable, and water; minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. At each point of assessment: 3 nonconsecutive days of 24-hour dietary recalls; 5 consecutive days of physical activity using accelerometers; and assessment of height, weight, waist circumference, and triceps skinfold.ResultsA repeated measures ANCOVA was conducted (analyzed in 2009-2010). Children playing these video games increased fruit and vegetable consumption by about 0.67 servings per day (p<0.018) but not water and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, or body composition.ConclusionsPlaying Diab and Nano resulted in an increase in fruit and vegetable intake. Research is needed on the optimal design of video game components to maximize change.
| S-EPMC3032382 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundVideo game play has been linked to a range of cognitive advantages, and investigations in this domain have predominantly utilized cross-sectional designs or long-term training paradigms. Nevertheless, the specific effects of engaging in a single bout of video game play remain poorly understood. Consequently, the objective of this study is to examine the influence of a single session of mobile action video game (MAVG) play on attentional networks among college students.MethodsSeventy-two nonvideo game players were assigned randomly into an MAVG and a control game group. Participants in the MAVG group engaged in a 60-minute session of an action video game played on mobile phones, while the control group played a mobile card game for the same duration. All participants completed the attentional network test (ANT), which assesses alerting, orienting, and executive control network efficiencies, before and after the intervention.ResultsThe MAVG group had significantly improved alerting network efficiency following the intervention, compared to before (p < 0.05); the control game group did not. Neither executive control network efficiency nor orienting network efficiency were found to be improved by the intervention.ConclusionThe present data demonstrated that a single bout of MAVG play can improve alerting network efficiency selectively in young-adult college students. MAVGs may be useful for promoting attentional function with the advantages of being accessible virtually any time and anywhere.
| S-EPMC10642364 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. Within that research field, at least two important research paths have been explored in the past years. On the one hand, the anxiolytic effect of casual video games has been tested as such gaming activity may distract away from anxious thoughts through the induction of flow and redirection of attention toward the game and thus away of anxious thoughts. On the other hand, the bidirectional link between weak attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of interventions aiming at improving attentional control such as working memory training studies. Taking stock that another genre of gaming, action video games, improves attentional control, game-based interventions that combines cognitive training and action-like game features would seem relevant. This three-arm randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of two video game interventions to document how each may potentially alleviate adolescent anxiety-related symptoms when deployed fully on-line.MethodsThe study aims to recruit 150 individuals, 12 to 14 years of age, with high levels of anxiety as reported by the parents' online form of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders questionnaire. This trial contrasts a child-friendly, "action-like" video game designed to improve attentional control abilities in a progressive and stepwise manner (Eco-Rescue), a casual puzzle video game selected to act as a positive distraction tool (Bejeweled) and finally a control group with no assigned training intervention to control for possible test-retest effects (No-training). Participants will be assigned randomly to one of the three study arms. They will be assessed for main (anxiety) and secondary outcomes (attentional control, affective working memory) at three time points, before training (T1), one week after the 6-week training (T2) and four months after completing the training (T3).DiscussionThe results will provide evidence for the feasibility and the efficacy of two online video game interventions at improving mental health and emotional well-being in adolescents with high levels of anxiety. This project will contribute unique knowledge to the field, as few studies have examined the effects of video game play in the context of digital mental health interventions for adolescents.Trial registrationThe trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05923944, June 20, 2023).
| S-EPMC10799487 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Categorization learning is a fundamental and complex cognitive ability. The present EEG study examined how much action video gamers differ from non-gamers in the usage of visual exploration and attention driven perceptual analyses during a categorization learning task. Seventeen healthy right-handed non-gamers and 16 healthy right-handed action video gamers performed a visual categorization task with 14 ring stimuli, which were divided into two categories. All stimuli had the same structure but differed with respect to their color combinations and were forming two categories including a prototype, five typical stimuli and one exception. The exception shared most similarities with the prototype of the opposite group. Prototypes and typical stimuli were correctly categorized at an early stage of the experiment, whereas the successful categorization of exceptions occurred later. The behavioral data yield evidence that action video gamers perform correct categorizations of exceptions earlier than non-gamers. Additionally, groups differed with respect to differential expressions of the attention related P150 ERP component (early perceptual analysis) and the N170 ERP component, which reflected differential processing demands for the stimulus material. In comparison to non-gamers, the analyses of the eye movements yield for action video gamers different, more central fixations possibly indicating covert peripheral processing. For both groups fixations as well as saccades decrease and in the case of exceptions, one of the two segments that are decisive for correct categorization shows higher fixation rates at the end of the experiment. These findings indicate for both groups a learning process regarding the stimulus material. Regarding the group differences, we interpret the results to indicate that action video gamers show a different stimulus exploration, use an enhanced early perceptual analysis of the stimulus material and therefore may detect changes in objects faster and learned the belonging of the stimuli to their categories in an earlier trial phase.
| S-EPMC7239510 | biostudies-literature