Reducing Visuospatial Pseudoneglect in Healthy Subjects by Active Video Gaming

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Pseudoneglect is a visuospatial attention bias where individuals overestimate the left side of bisected lines.
• Athletes in open-skill sports exhibit reduced pseudoneglect compared to the general population.
• Exergames, or active video games, simulate sports activities, presenting a potential tool to influence cognitive functions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a one-week training period of an open-skill exergame (tennis) can decrease pseudoneglect in non-athletes.
• To determine if exergame training improves visuospatial attention isotropy.
• To compare the effects of exergaming with non-exergaming and sedentary activities on pseudoneglect.

Main Methods:

• Fifteen healthy non-athletes performed a visuospatial attention task and a control memory task before (t0) and after (t1) one week of daily tennis exergaming.
• Participants were divided into an ExerGame group (EG), a Non-Exergame group (NEG), and a Sedentary group (SE).
• Performance was measured by changes in leftward space overestimation and leftward errors in the visuospatial task.

Main Results:

• The ExerGame group (EG) showed a significant reduction in leftward space overestimation and fewer leftward errors post-training (t1) compared to pre-training (t0).
• Non-exergaming (NEG) and sedentary (SE) activities did not lead to significant changes in visuospatial attention performance.
• Exergame training improved visuospatial attention isotropy by mitigating the pseudoneglect phenomenon.

Conclusions:

• Daily training with a tennis exergame can effectively reduce pseudoneglect in healthy non-athletes.
• Exergame interventions show promise for enhancing visuospatial attention and cognitive function.
• The benefits observed are specific to exergame engagement, not general screen time or inactivity.