Video gamers skills enhanced by training 10 minutes a day
Novice gamers benefit most from neurostimulation while training
2021-03-26
(Press-News.org) Limerick, Ireland, 26 March 2020: Researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software and University of Limerick (UL), have found video gamers can significantly improve their esport skills by training for just 10 minutes a day.
The research team at Lero's Esports Science Research Lab (ESRL) at UL also found novice gamers benefited most when they wore a custom headset delivering transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for 20 minutes before training sessions.
Dr Mark Campbell, director of Lero's Esports Science Research Lab (ESRL) and senior lecturer in sports psychology at UL, said their work showed that neurostimulation could accelerate motor performance improvements specifically in novice esports participants and that this effect was confined to more complex sensory-motor actions.
"One of the original and most prominent esports over the past 20 years has been the first-person shooter (FPS) game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). We asked participants to shoot and eliminate enemy targets as quickly and accurately as possible during their training sessions in the study," added researcher Dr Adam Toth.
Participants wore a custom headset (HALO Neuroscience™) designed to deliver transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). However, some received no stimulation, others just a 'sham' treatment, while the remainder received a 20-minute exposure.
"Our study found that novice gamers who received tDCS over their motor cortex before training improved their performance on the specific task over five days, significantly more than novices who trained following no such stimulus," explained Dr Campbell.
Curiously, according to Dr Toth, when they examined the effect of tDCS on training compared to non-stimulated groups, they observed a significant effect of tDCS on training for left and right targets, but not centre targets.
"The fact that tDCS exerted an influence on training performance specifically for targets requiring a larger controlled movement (left and right targets) corroborates the assertion that tDCS may be better able to accelerate performance improvements for complex motor movements rather than simple reactions," Dr Toth added.
The Lero team, whose work has just been published in Computers in Human Behavior, a scholarly journal dedicated to examining the use of computers from a psychological perspective, believes their work could lead to benefits outside the world of esports.
Dr Campbell said that in light of the team's findings, tDCS may be especially beneficial during the initial stages of task learning.
"Stroke patients, for example, could benefit from tDCS at the start of their rehabilitation process when re-learning complex movements that were once automatic", concluded Dr Campbell.
Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Director of Lero, stated: "Connected health and human performance is an area of enormous growth and software has a key role to play within that. At Lero, our research in this sector extends from using artificial intelligence to improve cancer detection to the delivery of software as a medical device. It is an area in which we are continually expanding our capabilities and our industry partnerships".
INFORMATION:
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-03-26
Patients with lupus are more likely to have metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance - both factors linked to heart disease - if they have lower vitamin D levels, a new study reveals.
Researchers believe that boosting vitamin D levels may improve control of these cardiovascular risk factors, as well as improving long-term outcomes for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Given that photosensitivity is a key feature of SLE, the scientists say that a combination of avoiding the sun, using high-factor sunblock and living in more northerly ...
2021-03-26
What The Study Did: Insurance claims were used to assess patterns of telehealth use across surgical specialties before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Authors: Grace F.Chao, M.D., M.Sc., of the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Michigan and Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor in Michigan, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2021.0979)
Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...
2021-03-26
What The Study Did: This article discusses possible pathogenic mechanisms of brain dysfunction in patients with COVID-19.
Authors: Maura Boldrini, M.D., Ph.D., of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0500)
Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial ...
2021-03-26
Bariatric surgery can significantly reduce the risk of cancer--and especially obesity-related cancers--by as much as half in certain individuals, according to a study by researchers at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School's Center for Liver Diseases and Liver Masses.
The research, published in the journal Gastroenterology, is the first to show bariatric surgery significantly decreases the risk of cancer in individuals with severe obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The risk reduction is even more pronounced in individuals with NAFLD-cirrhosis, the researchers say.
"We knew that obesity leads to certain problems, including cancer, but no one ...
2021-03-26
The alarm bells began ringing when dozens of eagles were found dead near an Arkansas lake.
Their deaths--and, later, the deaths of other waterfowl, amphibians and fish--were the result of a neurological disease that caused holes to form in the white matter of their brains. Field and laboratory research over nearly three decades has established the primary clues needed to solve this wildlife mystery: Eagle and waterfowl deaths occur in late fall and winter within reservoirs with excess invasive aquatic weeds, and birds can die within five days after arrival.
But until recently, the toxin that caused the disease, vacuolar myelinopathy, was unknown.
Now, after years spent identifying a new toxic blue-green algal (cyanobacteria) species and isolating ...
2021-03-26
PITTSBURGH, March 26, 2021 - As evidence mounts supporting the use of monoclonal antibody treatment to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists are sharing the health system's experience administering the life-saving medication.
In a report published today in the scientific journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, the UPMC/Pitt team shares how it quickly established the largest and most equitable distribution network for COVID-19 monoclonal antibody infusions across Pennsylvania. The team today also reported preliminary results confirming the treatment reduced likelihood of hospitalization ...
2021-03-26
EL PASO, Texas - Sreenath Chalil Madathil, Ph.D., assistant professor in industrial manufacturing and systems engineering (IMSE) at The University of Texas at El Paso, is working to streamline the process and ease the patient experience at COVID-19 vaccination clinics in the United States to ensure faster vaccine distribution.
Madathil led a team of UTEP faculty, staff and students who observed several of El Paso's drive-though and walk-in clinics in early 2021. The team identified areas that likely created bottlenecks, which produce delays and other issues. They used the information ...
2021-03-26
A University of Florida study of middle-aged and older adults finds those who unknowingly carry methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, on their skin are twice as likely to die within the next decade as people who do not have the bacteria.
"Very few people who carry MRSA know they have it, yet we have found a distinct link between people with undetected MRSA and premature death," said the study's lead author Arch G. Mainous III, Ph.D., a professor in the department of health services research, management and policy at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, part of UF Health, the university's academic health center.
The findings suggest that routine screening for undetected ...
2021-03-26
The warmer temperature and blooming flowers signal the arrival of spring. However, worries about respiratory diseases are also on the rise due to fine dust and viruses. The lung, which is vital to breathing, is rather challenging to create artificially for experimental use due to its complex structure and thinness. Recently, a POSTECH research team has succeeded in producing an artificial lung model using 3D printing.
Professor Sungjune Jung of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor Joo-Yeon Yoo and Ph.D. candidate Dayoon Kang of the Department of Life Sciences at POSTECH have together succeeded in creating ...
2021-03-26
Key takeaways
Surgery is an underused treatment for certain pancreatic cancer patients.
Patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent surgery after chemotherapy lived nearly twice as long as those treated with only chemotherapy.
Findings confirms current recommendations for stage II pancreatic cancer: survival improves when patients receive multimodality therapy, chemotherapy before and/or after surgery.
All analyses of the data delivered the same findings.
CHICAGO (March 26, 2021, 9:00 am CDT): Patients with stage II pancreatic cancer who are treated with chemotherapy followed by resection (an operation that removes the cancerous part of the organ, structure or tissue) live nearly twice as long as patients who receive only chemotherapy, according ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Video gamers skills enhanced by training 10 minutes a day
Novice gamers benefit most from neurostimulation while training
