Keiichi Saito

Brain Activity Comparison of Different-Genre Video Game Players

Brain areas activated by three different-genre video games, Othello, Tetris and Space Invader, were compared in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The responses of blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI contrasts while playing games or viewing pseudo-visual stimuli similar to the video games were measured with a 1.5 Tesla scanner in 10 right-handed healthy participants performing experiments and analysed using statistical parametric mapping. Increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, the premotor cortex, the parietal cortex and the visual association cortex was specifically associated with playing the three video games. Othello and Tetris, which require logical thinking, activated broader areas of the prefrontal cortex, and Space Invader and Tetris, which require real-time reaction, activated broader areas of the premotor and parietal cortex. These results indicate that the areas of brain activation while playing different-genre video games depended on the combination of required skills for each game.

Effects of Task Difficulty and Training of Visuospatial Working Memory Task on Brain Activity

Visuospatial working memory is one of the important cognitive processes and makes it possible to maintain and manipulate the visual information stored in brain systems. In this study, effects of task difficulty and two-week training of visuospatial working memory task on brain activity and its neural mechanisms were investigated.

Brain Activation during Visuo-Spatial Memory Task: an fMRI Study

Effect of information capacity and one week training of visuo-spatial memory task on brain activity were investigated. Brain activity during a visuo-spatial memory task with 10 and 30 visual targets were measured with functional MRI before and after one week training of the task. Statistical probability mapping revealed that activity in prefrontal cortex depended on visual information capacity in visuo- spatial task, and the activated area decreased after one-week training of the task.