Expert Video Game Player's Brains Not Wired Like the Rest of US

[Elmore Furth]

There is a longstanding debate about natural ability versus training and persistence.

Looks like some people are hard wired to perform better at video games.

If you don't believe me, try this baseball reaction time test to see if you can hit a 90 mile-an-hour fastball.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html

New neurological research, published in—and made freely available by—the journal Cerebral Cortex has found a correlation between the size of a trio of structures in the human brain and their owner's ability to learn and play video games. Animal studies had focused the authors' attention on three distinct structures deep within the brain: the caudate nucleus and the putamen in the dorsal striatum, and the nucleus accumbens in the ventral striatum. It was known that the striatum was used in habit forming and skill acquisition, so a role in video games skills makes sense.

The researchers recruited 39 healthy adults (10 men, 29 women) who had played fewer than three hours of video games each week during the previous two years. They then examined their brains with the aid of an MRI machine. The volume of each of the structures of interest was compared to the total volume of their brain. Each participant then trained with the video game "Space Fortress"—a game developed at the University of Illinois that can be used to measure performance on various cognitive tasks.

Half of the participants were tasked with simply getting the highest score possible, while the other half was given a series of tasks that forced them to improve their skills in different areas. The researchers found that those with a larger nucleus accumbens learned faster and excelled at the early stages of the game regardless of which group they were in. Participants with larger caudate nucleus and putamen did best on the variable priority training exercises, where they had to focus on different aspects at various times throughout the training.

Both of these results make sense, according to the study's lead author Kirk Erickson. The nucleus accumbens is linked to the brain's reward center and would aid a participant's motivation following early successes. According to Erikson, "The putamen and the caudate have been implicated in learning procedures, learning new skills, and those nuclei predicted learning throughout the 20-hour period. learned more quickly and learned more over the training period." He also suggested that games tell us about learning in general: "This study tells us a lot about how the brain works when it is trying to learn a complex task."


Bad at video games? Your brain structure may be at fault

[dbonds]

1. I could hit the baseball every time.

[tridim]

3. Me too, that test can't be right.

No way I can hit a 90mph pitch IRL.

[Beartracks]

8. The delay before the message should be variable...

... otherwise, repeating the game increases your odds of "success" because you can simply learn the timing rather than actually wait until the message flashes. I think that would produce a truer average across multiple attempts.

That said, I played several times, and tried to hold off clicking until I actually saw the message. Got a 0.3, a 0.22, another 0.3, a 0.21... and once when I over-anticipated, I got a home run with a 0.08 reaction time!

[dalaigh lllama]

2. My putamen must be tiny

:cry:

[MercutioATC]

16. There's an operation for that...

:P

[MercutioATC]

4. NONE of our brains are wired the same way.

I'm an air traffic controller. Been one for 19 years and I'm pretty good at what I do.

I can conceptualize in 3 dimensions. I can keep a continuously-evolving map with multiple conflict situations in my head.


I also have seriously shitty short-term memory retention and, while I can hear one voice in a crowd if I'm listening for it, my audio recognition is overly selective.


Some of this is natural preponderances that make me good at my job and bad at other things. Some of it is a direct result of the necessities of my job.


We're all good (and bad) at different processes. We get lucky when we find an occupation (whether air traffic control or gamer) that both depends upon and implements our natural strengths.

We also pay a price for over-specializing.

[The Doctor.]

6. You'd have thrown the curve on this study.

Glad they kept you out.

;)

[MercutioATC]

7. My point is that we're all exceptional/flawed...

I really envy gamers' twitch skills, but they generally pay the price in some other area...as do we all.

[bananas]

9. I developed atc systems

We tuned it to your response times.
You push a button - how many msec before you are consciously aware that it is flashing vs fluttering vs constant on?
Plus whatever latency the pilots and controllers felt comfortable...
Your voice-recognition ability is way beyond anything computers will be able to handle for many decades (at a minimum).
"shhkltckshhhklshhh..." somehow you decode that noise into comprehensible communication...
:applause:
edit to add: and you got me to my niece's wedding - thank you.

[MercutioATC]

10. For whom (if I may ask)?

Lockheed-Martin?

You guys are like us. We get on the same page and make the system work better, There HAVE been some advances that have made our jobs easier...and for that, we all thank you.

I did computer modeling and implementation for RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum). I got to work with a lot of contractors and I was surprised to find that they generally all viewed it like we did...it wasn't just a job, it was a mission.

Thanks for what you do :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Is that directly from the criteria book for air controllers?

"I can conceptualize in 3 dimensions. I can keep a continuously-evolving map with multiple conflict situations in my head." Or is that your own description?

[MercutioATC]

12. My own.

Most good controllers are able to do these things, though. Those that can't usually move into management pretty quickly...

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. So...

if anyone ever uses this term, "I can keep a continuously-evolving map with multiple conflict situations in my head." they would have to quote you?

It's pretty good. It's how I see social networks.

[MercutioATC]

15. I'll be generous and allow its use without citation.

:P

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. You have brought order to my world.

I am not worthy.

[Demeter]

5. For Which I Am Devoutly Grateful

[Phoonzang]

13. My brain must be freakishly different then.

I've literally been playing video games at least an hour a day since I was a toddler.

[Ter]

17. 0.14 here!