Connectivity in the Dorsal Visual Stream is Enhanced in Action Video Game Players

Abstract

Action video games foster competitive environments that demand rapid spatial navigation and decision-making. Action video gamers often exhibit faster response times and slightly improved accuracy in vision-based sensorimotor tasks. However, the underlying functional and structural changes in the two visual streams of the brain that may be contributing to these cognitive improvements have been unclear. Using functional and diffusion MRI data, this study investigated the differences in connectivity between gamers who play action video games and nongamers in the dorsal and ventral visual streams. We found that action video gamers have enhanced functional and structural connectivity, especially in the dorsal visual stream. Specifically, there is heightened functional connectivity--both undirected and directed--between the left Superior Occipital Gyrus and the left Superior Parietal Lobule during a moving-dots discrimination decision-making task. This increased connectivity correlates with response time in gamers. The structural connectivity, as quantified by diffusion fractional anisotropy and quantitative anisotropy measures of the axonal fiber pathways between the same regions was also enhanced for gamers compared to nongamers. These findings provide valuable insights into how action video gaming can induce targeted neuroplastic changes, enhancing structural and functional connectivity between specific brain regions in the visual processing pathways. These connectivity changes in the dorsal visual stream underpin the superior performance of action video gamers compared to non-gamers in tasks requiring rapid and accurate vision-based decision-making. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=169 SRC="FIGDIR/small/615213v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (49K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ebf169org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1363d13org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e3c08eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@176e719_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG Impact StatementUnderstanding the neural mechanisms underlying how observed cognitive alterations due to video game playing are achieved has potential implications for future cognitive training, rehabilitation, and education. The structural and functional MRI analysis in this study provides a quantitative basis by which the underlying neural connectivity changes due to video game playing in the visual streams may be assessed and linked to observed behavioral differences. These methods are extendible and provide insight into underlying neural network enhancements associated with improved cognitive performance due to video game playing. The findings of this study support enhanced functional and structural connectivity in the dorsal visual stream among gamers due to video game playing in the behavioral paradigm of vision-based sensorimotor decision-making. Functional connectivity measures that were considered were significantly correlated with the participants response times.