Research On Functional Plasticity Of Cerebellum Induced By Action Video Games

In recent years,with the rapid development of various game industries,the audience for video games is increasing.Numerous research has shown that some special types of video games,for example,Action video game(AVG),etc.,invoke more brain functions during use.The process inevitably induces plastic changes in the brain.Therefore,video games may have become a new medium to change the way humans learn and understand the world.While there have been many findings suggesting an effect of AVG on brain plasticity,little research has associated AVG with functional plasticity in the cerebellum.To see if AVG can induce functional plasticity in the cerebellum,this research recruited 40 video game players at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC)and asked them to participate in a year-long game retirement(reduced game time)experiment.Specifically,with different video game experience,the participants were divided into the AVG player group and the Non-action video game(NAVG)player group.The two groups were required to play games for no more than 3 hours per week during the entire research period(self-reported results from the AVG group showed that the game time was significantly lower than before the research began).Various confounding variables(desired effects and prior experience,etc.)were controlled throughout the research.Then,at the beginning and end of the research(pre-test and post-test),the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-f MRI)data of the two groups of participants were collected,and the scanning interval is one-year.Finally,the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations(ALFF)and functional connectivity density(FCD)of cerebellar brain regions were calculated for the rs-f MRI data of the participants.Comparing the pre-and-posts-f MRI scan images between the groups and within the group,the results showed that the ALFF of the cerebellum in lobule IV/V and left lobule VI in the AVG group were significantly increased,while the ALFF of the cerebellum in right lobule VIII and other brain regions were significantly decreased.However,ALFF in the cerebellum did not change significantly in the NAVG group.Meanwhile,the retested local FCD and long-range FCD in the AVG group were also significantly lower in the post-test,and the results were consistent with the changes in ALFF.The experimental results of this video game retirement research suggest that altered spontaneous neural activity in various parts of the cerebellum may be associated with altered AVG game experience.These results suggest from the reverse direction that AVG experience can induce functional plasticity in the cerebellum at the voxel level when various key confounding variables are controlled.