AUTHOR=Yao Yutong , Cui Ruifang , Li Yi , Zeng Lu , Jiang Jinliang , Qiu Nan , Dong Li , Gong Diankun , Yan Guojian , Ma Weiyi , Liu Tiejun 

TITLE=Action Real-Time Strategy Gaming Experience Related to Enhanced Capacity of Visual Working Memory

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00333

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2020.00333

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=<p>Action real-time strategy gaming (ARSG)—a major genre of action video gaming (AVG)—has both <italic>action</italic> and <italic>strategy</italic> elements. ARSG requires attention, visual working memory (VWM), sensorimotor skills, team cooperation, and strategy-making abilities, thus offering promising insights into the learning-induced plasticity. However, it is yet unknown whether the ARSG experience is related to the development of VWM capacity. Using both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements, this study tested whether ARSG experts had larger VWM capacity than non-experts in a change detection task. The behavioral results showed that ARSG experts had higher accuracy and larger VWM capacity than non-experts. In addition, the ERP results revealed that the difference wave of the contralateral delay activity (CDA) component (size 4–size 2) elicited by experts was significantly larger than that of non-experts, suggesting that the VWM capacity was higher in experts than in non-experts. Thus, the findings suggested that prolonged ARSG experience is correlative with the enhancement of VWM.</p>