An Event-related Potentials Study Of The Influence Of Action Video Game Experience On Visual Selective Attention

Nowadays,video games have swept all over the world and become an indispensable part of the daily life of mankind.Over the past few decades,action video games(AVG)-a major genre of video games-have become increasingly popular entertainment mediums worldwide,with more and more people considering them as main choices of everyday entertainment.AVG features fast speed,high cognitive workload,decision-making under time pressure.Their emergence has ushered in a new era for researchers who are keen on exploring the cognitive functions of human brain.The past few decades have witnessed a myriad of studies concentrated on studying the influence of AVG experience on the cognitive processing of the brain.For example,AVG can not only enhance the capacity of primary information processing,e.g.,visual processing,visual sensitivity,and eyehand coordination,but also boost higher-level cognitive functions,e.g.,attention,spatial processing,working memory,executive control and task switching.Note that AVG experience is related to improvements in cognitive abilities that are highly relevant to visual selective attention(VSA).Researchers found that long-term AVG experience can modify players' performance in the useful field of view task.The useful field of view task taxes primarily spatial VSA,since participants are asked to locate the target stimulus that appears unpredictably,but equally often,in one of 24 different peripheral locations in a typical useful field of view task.But temporal VSA is also critical for AVG,as AVG players must detect and identify multiple stimuli appearing successively and quickly at the same location on the screen in the AVG context.However,the relationship between AVG experience and a critical component of VSA(i.e.,temporal VSA)still remains understudied.This study used an attentional blink(AB)task-a time-based VSA task – to unveil the influence of AVG experience on the players' temporal VSA.AB refers to a deficit in reporting a second target(T2)presented within 200-500 msec after the onset of a first target(T1)in a rapid serial visual presentation stream,which seemed to arise from eye-blinks.Although the useful field of view and AB tasks may utilize shared attentional resources,they may be related to different underlying attentional mechanisms,with spatial VSA operating at an early(perpetual)level of processing and temporal VSA operating only after perception is complete,therefore reflecting a response-related(post-perceptual)level of processing.Thus,an examination of the relationship between AVG experience and temporal VSA is important for any complete theory on AVG-related brain plasticity.Using behavioral methods,research found a smaller AB effect caused by long-term AVG experience.But we can't further untangle the underlying mechanism during an AB task.The current study used both behavioral and ERP data,aiming to reveal the cognitive time course of temporal VSA during an AB task.Previous electrophysiological AB research found that a distinct P3 is often observed when T2 is identified;however,P3 is typically not observable for a “blinked”(i.e.,an incorrectly reported or missed)T2.Given this,the current study analyzed the P3 component evoked in the AB task.This study systematically examined the influence of AVG experience on the development of temporal VSA – a major component of VSA that has yet to be studied.Both AVG experts(n = 19)and non-experts(n = 19)completed an AB task.Results showed that the experts outperformed the non-experts in their detection rates of targets,with the T2 identification rates dropping significantly in the non-experts but not in the experts during the AB period(that is,dual-target trials at lag3),in particular.Furthermore,compared to the non-experts,the experts had faster information processing as indicated by earlier P3 peak latencies in an AB period,more attentional resources distributed to targets as indicated by stronger P3 amplitudes,and a more flexible deployment of attentional resources.These findings suggest that experts were less prone to the AB effect.Given the mutually confirmed results provided by target detection rates and P3 latencies as well as P3 amplitudes,this study employed both behavioral and electrophysiological measures and did a more compelling demonstration – AVG experts do have superior temporal VSA as compared to non-experts in an AB task.Thus,longterm AVG experience is related to improvements in temporal VSA.The current findings support the benefit of video game experience on the development of VSA.