Application of transcranial alternating current stimulation to improve eSports-related cognitive performance

作者：Fujia Jiao, Jie Zhuang, Michael A. Nitsche, Zhenggen Lin, Yuanbo Ma, Yu Liu · 发表于：Frontiers in Neuroscience · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fnins.2024.1308370 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies、Sport Psychology and Performance、Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Introduction: Electronic Sports (eSports) is a popular and still emerging sport. Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) and First/Third Person Shooting Games (FPS/TPS) require excellent visual attention abilities. Visual attention involves specific frontal and parietal areas, and is associated with alpha coherence. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a principally suitable tool to improve cognitive functions by modulation of regional oscillatory cortical networks that alters regional and larger network connectivity. Methods: In this single-blinded crossover study, 27 healthy college students were recruited and exposed to 10 Hz tACS of the right frontoparietal network. Subjects conducted a Visual Spatial Attention Distraction task in three phases: T0 (pre-stimulation), T1 (during stimulation), T2 (after-stimulation), and an eSports performance task which contained three games ("Exact Aiming," "Flick Aiming," "Press Reaction") before and after stimulation. Results: The results showed performance improvements in the "Exact Aiming" task and hint for a prevention of reaction time performance decline in the "Press Reaction" task in the real, as compared to the sham stimulation group. We also found a significant decrease of reaction time in the visual spatial attention distraction task at T1 compared to T0 in the real, but not sham intervention group. However, accuracy and inverse efficiency scores (IES) did not differ between intervention groups in this task. Dis...