Brain differences in compulsive video game players

A new study led by the University of Utah School of Medicine and Chung-Ang University provides evidence that several regions of the brain are hyperconnected in adolescent boys diagnosed with Internet gaming disorder (lines between colored areas, colored areas represent specific brain networks). Some of the changes may help game players respond to new information, others are associated with distractibility and poor impulse control.

Brain scans from nearly 200 adolescent boys provide evidence that the brains of compulsive video game players are wired differently. Chronic video game play is associated with hyperconnectivity between several pairs of brain networks. Some of the changes are predicted to help game players respond to new information. Other changes are associated with distractibility and poor impulse control. The research, a collaboration between the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Chung-Ang University in South Korea, was published online in Addiction Biology on Dec. 21, 2015.

"Most of the differences we see could be considered beneficial. However the good changes could be inseparable from problems that come with them," says senior author Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neuroradiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Those with Internet gaming disorder are obsessed with video games, often to the extent that they give up eating and sleeping to play. This study reports that in adolescent boys with the disorder, certain brain networks that process vision or hearing are more likely to have enhanced coordination to the so-called salience network. The job of the salience network is to focus attention on important events, poising that person to take action. In a video game, the enhanced coordination could help a gamer to react more quickly to the rush of an oncoming fighter. And in life, to a ball darting in front of a car, or an unfamiliar voice in a crowded room.

"Hyperconnectivity between these brain networks could lead to a more robust ability to direct attention toward targets, and to recognize novel information in the environment," says Anderson. "The changes could essentially help someone to think more efficiently." Follow up studies will be needed to directly determine whether the boys with these brain differences do better on performance tests.

A more troublesome finding is a coordination between two brain regions, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction, that is more strong than in individuals who are not compulsive video game players. "Having these networks be too connected may increase distractibility," says Anderson. The same change is seen in patients with neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, Down's syndrome, and autism, and in people with poor impulse control. At this point it's not known whether persistent video gaming causes rewiring of the brain, or whether people who are wired differently are drawn to video games.

This work is the largest, most comprehensive investigation of differences in the brains of compulsive video game players to date, says first author Doug Hyun Han, M.D., Ph.D., professor at Chung-Ang University School of Medicine and adjunct associate professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Study participants were screened in South Korea, where video game playing is a major social activity, much more than in the United States. The Korean government supports his research with the goal of finding ways to identify and treat addicts.

In this study, researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging on 106 boys between the ages of 10 to 19 who were seeking treatment for Internet gaming disorder, a psychological condition that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) says warrants further research. The brain scans were compared to those from 80 boys without the disorder, and analyzed for regions that were activated simultaneously when participants were at rest. The more frequently two brain regions light up at the same time, the stronger the functional connectivity.

The team analyzed activity in 25 pairs of brain regions, 300 combinations in all. Specifically, boys with Internet gaming disorder had statistically significant, functional connections between the following pairs of brain regions:

• Auditory cortex (hearing) -- motor cortex (movement)
• Auditory cortex (hearing) -- supplementary motor cortices (movement)
• Auditory cortex (hearing) -- anterior cingulate (salience network)
• Frontal eye field (vision) -- anterior cingulate (salience network)
• Frontal eye field (vision) -- anterior insula (salience network)
• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -- temporoparietal junction

"Brain connectivity and psychiatric comorbidity in adolescents with Internet gaming disorder" was published in Addiction Biology online on December 21, 2015. In addition to Anderson and Han, the authors are Perry Renshaw from the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Sun Mi Kim and Sujin Bae from Chung-Ang University. The research was supported by a grant from the Korea Creative Content Agency

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Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided byUniversity of Utah Health Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Doug Hyun Han, Sun Mi Kim, Sujin Bae, Perry F. Renshaw, Jeffrey S. Anderson. Brain connectivity and psychiatric comorbidity in adolescents with Internet gaming disorder. Addiction Biology, 2015; DOI: 10.1111/adb.12347

Using light to understand the brain | sci-english.blogspot.com

Neurons in the cortex of a mouse express proteins enabling the 'reading' and 'writing' of electrical activity. Six neurons arranged in the shape of a smiling face were simultaneously activated with light. The response of those neurons is color coded in green, indicating the successful activation of this neuronal pattern of activity. This experiment was performed during the acquisition of experimental data seeking to understand how patterns of activity propagate in the cortex | sci-english.blogspot.com

UCL researchers have developed an innovative way to understand how the brain works by using flashes of light, allowing them to both 'read' and 'write' brain signals.

The new technique, described in Nature Methods, combines two cutting-edge technologies for reading and writing electrical activity in the brain. First, genetically encoded activity sensors enable neuroscientists to engineer nerve cells to visibly light up when they are active. Expressing light-sensitive proteins in the same nerve cells then allows these cells to be activated with flashes of light. By combining these two techniques, the team was able to both observe and control brain activity in mice.
"Combining reading and writing of activity in the same neurons in the intact brain could revolutionize how neuroscientists can interact with and understand brain activity," explains Professor Michael Hausser (UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research), senior author of the study. "One of the best things about having an extended conversation with someone is that you can really get to know them. With time, their responses can give you a feel for the key questions to ask in order to understand their character. Just as we combine specific words into sentences that elicit a reply from someone we talk to, we used light to activate specific combinations of nerve cells in the intact brain and record how the other cells respond. In this way, we hope to be able to ask the brain questions and, from its answers, better understand how it works."
To activate multiple brain cells simultaneously, the researchers split up the incoming beam of light using a holographic technique to direct smaller beamlets to individual cells of their choosing. The team selected a group of neurons in the cortex that are specifically responsive to the sensation of touch, reliably activating them while recording the flashes of activity in both the activated neurons and in hundreds of neighbouring neurons. This allowed them to 'interrogate' the circuit in a precise way, activating selected brain cells in different patterns and measuring how the circuit responds.
These experiments could be repeated in the same sets of neurons in the same animals over days and even weeks, allowing an extended 'conversation' with the circuit. In future, the team hope that by replacing a physical stimulus with precise, holographically controlled brain activity, the 'neural code' of sensory perception can be cracked.
"We are very excited to use this technology to probe the basis of how groups of neurons and ultimately the brain stores and processes information from the world around us," says first author Dr Adam Packer (UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research). "This work provides a new way for neuroscientists to have a long-term and engaging conversation with the cerebral cortex in the brain of a mouse. Crucially, since the methods of both recording and activation rely on light, this technique is flexible and non-invasive."
The nature of the 'conversation' depends only on where and when the researchers choose to point the light. Insights gained using this approach will be useful not only for understanding the 'neural code', but also for understanding how neural activity goes awry in neurological conditions such as autism and dementia.

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University College London. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Adam M Packer, Lloyd E Russell, Henry W P Dalgleish, Michael Häusser. Simultaneous all-optical manipulation and recording of neural circuit activity with cellular resolution in vivo. Nature Methods, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.3217

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A Positive Mood Allows Your Brain to Think More Creatively

 

People who watch funny videos on the internet at work aren’t necessarily wasting time. They may be taking advantage of the latest psychological science—putting themselves in a good mood so they can think more creatively.
“Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking,” says Ruby Nadler, a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario. She and colleagues Rahel Rabi and John Paul Minda carried out a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. For this study, Nadler and her colleagues looked at a particular kind of learning that is improved by creative thinking.
Students who took part in the study were put into different moods and then given a category learning task to do (they learned to classify sets of pictures with visually complex patterns). The researchers manipulated mood with help from music clips and video clips; first, they tried several out to find out what made people happiest and saddest. The happiest music was a peppy Mozart piece, and the happiest video was of a laughing baby. The researchers then used these in the experiment, along with sad music and video (a piece of music from Schindler’s List and a news report about an earthquake) and a piece of music and a video that didn’t affect mood. After listening to the music and watching the video, people had to try to learn to recognize a pattern.
Happy volunteers were better at learning a rule to classify the patterns than sad or neutral volunteers. “If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that,” Nadler says. And music is an easy way to get into a good mood. Everyone has a different type of music that works for them—don’t feel like you have to switch to Mozart, she says.
Nadler also thinks this may be a reason why people like to watch funny videos at work. “I think people are unconsciously trying to put themselves in a positive mood”—so that apparent time-wasting may actually be good news for employers.