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Can Videogames Improve Executive Functioning? A Research Based on Computational Neurosciences

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Ambient Intelligence for Health (AmIHEALTH 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9456))

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Abstract

Nowadays, we are living a different use and understanding of videogames. Particularly, Serious Games aim to develop specific objectives beyond entertainment, mainly, educational and training objectives. There is a novel perspective that uses serious games as an innovative tool in the field of health (health games). This paper belongs to that perspective due to its multidisciplinary perspective focused on neurosciences and computation. The main goal is to determine the frontal-lobe brain activity (executive functioning) while using videogames. The participants of the developed experiments were children from 8 to 12 years old whose executive functioning was evaluated using psychological assessments to obtain a cognitive profile and can validate the cognitive skills developed during the use of videogames, particularly, adventure-action genre. The analysis of brain activity was performed through an electroencephalography neuroheadset which collects brain signals during the physiological assessment and while users are playing videogames. The hypotheses to validate are whether videogames can develop executive functioning and whether it is possible to identify which kind of cognitive skills are developed during each kind of typical mechanics in adventure-action videogames.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted in the context of UBIHEALTH project under International Research Staff Exchange Schema (MC-IRSES 316337). Thanks to the students: Laura Gutierrez, Rodrigo Marín, Carlos Vallejo, Carlos Villa and Mª Jesús Ciudad for the development of those amazing videogames. Finally and specially, many thanks to all families involved in this project.

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Correspondence to Tania Mondéjar .

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Mondéjar, T. et al. (2015). Can Videogames Improve Executive Functioning? A Research Based on Computational Neurosciences. In: Bravo, J., Hervás, R., Villarreal, V. (eds) Ambient Intelligence for Health. AmIHEALTH 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9456. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26508-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26508-7_20

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