Hereby, Bavelier and Green (2019) suggested that the conjunction between reward-related learning and attentional control might be a core mechanism underlying improvements in cognitive processing related to video gaming. Recently this approach has been developed further as a significant body of research indicated that foremost cognitive functions related to top–down attentional deployment were affected by video gaming ( Bediou et al., 2018 Bavelier and Green, 2019).
Thus, action video gamers (AVGs) might not outperform non-video gamers (NVGs) in a paradigm right from the start but after a time course of learning. According to this approach ( Bavelier et al., 2012b Green and Bavelier, 2012), playing action video games may improve video gamers’ probabilistic inference, which may enhance additional cognitive processes that rely on probabilistic inference, e.g., perception ( Deroy et al., 2016) and attention ( Rao, 2005). However, in order to apply commercially available video games (e.g., Battlefield V) for such purposes, the mechanisms underlying their effects need to be understood more in detail: one prominent attempt to explain how in particular action video games may improve cognitive processing is the idea that they affect one specific cognitive domain which several cognitive functions have in common – also known as learning to learn approach ( Bavelier et al., 2012b Green and Bavelier, 2012). In this sense, for instance, EndeavorRx TM (Akili Interactive Labs, Boston, MA, United States), a racing video game customized to treat children with ADHD ( Kollins et al., 2020), was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), recently.
Thus, video gaming might represent a promising tool both for investigating human learning and therapeutic use in clinical populations (e.g., in patients with amblyopia, see Gambacorta et al., 2018). There is convincing evidence that playing commercially available video games, in particular action video games, such as Battlefield V (EA DICE Stockholm), may improve cognitive functions – ranging from perception ( Dye et al., 2009 Li et al., 2009, 2010 Bejjanki et al., 2014), over memory ( Blacker and Curby, 2013 Blacker et al., 2014 McDermott et al., 2014 Pavan et al., 2019), probabilistic inference ( Green et al., 2010 Schenk et al., 2017), and executive control ( Colzato et al., 2010 Cain et al., 2012 Green et al., 2012 Strobach et al., 2012) to attentional deployment ( Greenfield et al., 1994 Green and Bavelier, 2003 Chisholm and Kingstone, 2012 Cain et al., 2014 Wu and Spence, 2013).
From this we concluded that EEG alpha power might be a promising neural substrate for explaining cognitive improvement in video gaming. An additional regression analysis affirmed this observation. Moreover, both EEG alpha power attenuation and speed of information processing were modulated by an interaction between group affiliation and time on task, indicating that video gamers showed larger EEG alpha power attenuations and faster information processing over time than NVGs – with AVGs displaying the largest increase. There was a positive correlation between the extent of post-stimulus EEG alpha power attenuation (10–12 Hz) and speed of information processing across all participants. Accuracy data was analyzed using TVA-algorithms. Forty male volunteers performed a visual short-term memory paradigm where they memorized shape stimuli depicted on circular stimulus displays at six different exposure durations while their EEGs were recorded. The aim of this study was to test whether non-video gamers (NVGs), non-action video gamers (NAVGs) and action video gamers (AVGs) exhibit differences in EEG alpha power, and whether this might account for differences in visual information processing as operationalized by the theory of visual attention (TVA). Given that EEG alpha power reflects inhibitory processing, a core component of attentional control, it might represent the electrophysiological substrate of cognitive improvement in video gaming. The basis for these improvements may be attentional control in conjunction with reward-related learning to amplify the execution of goal-relevant actions while suppressing goal-irrelevant actions. Video gaming, specifically action video gaming, seems to improve a range of cognitive functions.
2Chair of Communication Networks, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany.1Research Unit of Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.Yannik Hilla 1, Jörg von Mankowski 2, Julia Föcker 3 and Paul Sauseng 1*