Real-time Brain Activations Associated With Video Game Playing:fMRI And FNIRS Studies

With the explode of computer hardware and software technology and Internet technology,video game has become the mainstream way of entertainment in people’s daily life.Nowadays,the video game industry has become a pivotal industry both in terms of player number and market income.Some video games have even become national recognized E-sports events.However,video games are a double-edged sword.Its influence on the player’s brain is bidirectional.Playing games properly can enhance our brain from functional and structural ways,so as to improve our cognitive abilities.On the other hand,excessive indulgence in games or exposure to inappropriate game contents can result in serious consequences such as decline in school performance,weakening of decision-making ability,harmed self-control ability,violence or risky behaviors,emotional control problem,and even addiction,accompanied by abnormality in terms of brain function and structure.Therefore,the study of video games related brain function is of great importance.This paper focuses on this theme.The main contents are as follows:First of all,we started with the simple Sudoku game,using functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)to monitor the real-time brain activities during the game,and discuss the activation pattern of the activated brain regions.During the experiment,we customized a Sudoku game program and the MRI compatible mouse to improve the experimental environment.Finally,the simultaneous fMRI data collection with the Sudoku game-playing is achieved.Experimental results showed that Sudoku games involved the fronto-parietal control network,the reward system and the default mode network.The brain regions such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(DLPFC),the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex(VLPFC)and the frontal pole area(FPA)may be sensitive to the video games,which could provide guidance for the selection of interested brain regions in the follow-up study.Then we move our sight from simple games to complex online video games.However,there is no suitable research plan for complex online video games at present.So this paper explores the research methods,and puts forward a set of programs from data acquisition,processing and data analysis.According to the complex characteristics of the online games,the functional near infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS)is selected to design experiment for its relatively friendly experimental environment.The game video and fNIRS data are collected simultaneously in real time.Because the content of online games is various,it is necessary to extract the corresponding brain activities of a certain game content by special data analysis method.In this regard,we can analyze the video of the game and code the fNIRS data according to the contents of the video to achieve the purpose.We extract the corresponding brain activities from the corresponding fNIRS data segments of the same game content and stack up the average.After OPLS-DA validation,we find that it needs at least 4 data segments to achieve the goal.Finally,we used this research plan to study one of the most popular online games: the League of legends.We divided the contents of the game into three levels: game stage,game event,and game events embedded in a certain context.We also examined the functional patterns that were induced by the three levels of game contents in DLPFC,VLPFC and FPA,respectively,and discussed the roles they played in the game.According to the results,we speculate that the activities of VLPFC brain region during playing online games are likely to reflect the task load of the visual-motion interaction of the game itself,while the brain activities of DLPFC and FPA may involve higher cognitive functions,such as the switching of attentional states and allocation of cognitive resources...