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Behavioral Training Procedures for Head-fixed Virtual Reality in Mice
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Video game training and the reward system.

Robert C Lorenz1, Tobias Gleich2, Jürgen Gallinat3

  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte Berlin, Germany ; Institute of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Germany.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|February 21, 2015
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Summary

Video game training may preserve brain reward system activity. This study shows that playing video games can maintain ventral striatum responsiveness to rewards over time, suggesting potential therapeutic benefits.

Keywords:
fMRIlongitudinalreward anticipationtrainingvideo gaming

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

  • Video games utilize complex reward schedules that can enhance motivation.
  • Neuroimaging suggests video games impact the brain's reward system.
  • It remains unclear if reward sensitivity predisposes individuals to gaming or results from it.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate reward-related functional predictors of video gaming.
  • To examine functional brain changes following video game training.
  • To explore the causal relationship between gaming and reward system activity.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study design with 50 healthy participants.
  • Random assignment to video game training (TG) or control group (CG).
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a reward task before and after intervention.

Main Results:

  • Both groups initially showed strong ventral striatum (VS) activation during reward anticipation.
  • The TG maintained similar VS activity post-training.
  • The CG exhibited significantly attenuated VS activity at posttest.

Conclusions:

  • Video game training appears to preserve reward responsiveness in the ventral striatum over time.
  • Gaming may maintain flexibility in striatal reward responses.
  • This mechanism could be valuable for therapeutic cognitive training applications.