Training with audio and video games improves audiospatial performance in a “cocktail-party” task: A controlled intervention study in young adults

Computer game playing has been suggested to be an effective training to enhance perceptual and cognitive abilities. Focusing on potential improvements in auditory selective spatial attention induced by computer gaming, we compared a passive waiting-control group with two gaming groups, playing either a first-person audio-only action game requiring spatial attention and sound localization or a platform side-scroller video game without audiospatial components, which has been shown to improve cognitive performance in previous studies. Prior to and immediately after game training for 1 month for at least 30 min per day (total training time ≥15 h), healthy young adults were tested in an audiospatial task simulating a “cocktail-party” situation with multiple speakers at different positions. The proportion of correct target localizations was significantly increased after audio and video gaming compared with the control group. However, there were no significant differences between gaming groups, with similarly strong effects of action audio game and non-action video game trainings on auditory selective spatial attention. Thus, it seems as if successful training of “cocktail-party” listening can be induced not only by modality-specific near-transfer learning within the audiospatial domain, but also by far transfer of trained cognitive skills across sensory modalities, which may enhance domain-general processes supporting selective attention.


Introduction
Currently, video games are increasingly used as a training tool to enhance human 31 cognitive functions (for review, see [1][2][3]). In particular, application of video games has been 32 suggested to be beneficial for improving and preventing symptoms of neurodegenerative 33 disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, for counteracting cognitive decline in healthy aging, 34 and for cognitive enhancement in normal healthy people [4,5]. It is assumed that the effects of 35 playing video games are related to processes of brain plasticity increasing volume of specific 36 areas and connectivity between regions [6-8].

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In particular, video game players have been shown to be generally better than non-38 players in perceiving small differences in grey scales, in processing speed, and visual processing as well as working memory performance have been reported (e.g. [8,[12][13][14], for 43 review, see [15][16][17]). Especially players of action video games (i.e., games with high speed, 44 high information density, and often violence [14]), showed increased performance in 45 numerous cognitive tasks of different difficulty levels (for review, see [18,19]). The results of 46 cross-sectional studies with video game players, have been largely confirmed by controlled 47 intervention studies using a repeated measures design (i.e., with testing before and after a 48 period of gaming). In particular, these intervention studies demonstrated facilitation of 49 attentional functions and spatial cognition after game training [9,10,20-23]. 50 Video games have been shown to induce specific processes of structural brain 51 plasticity that may be related to observations on the behavioral level. For example, in a 52 controlled intervention study, using a simple platform video game, Kühn et al. [6] found 53 significant gray matter increases in areas involved in spatial navigation, strategic planning, 54 and working memory, namely hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Similarly, a 55 cross-sectional study by Kühn and Gallinat [24] demonstrated the amount of lifetime multi-56 genre video gaming to be positively associated with gray matter volumes of entorhinal, 57 hippocampal, and occipital areas, thus suggesting adaptive neural plasticity related to 58 navigation and visual attention. Also, a cross-sectional study by Tanaka et al. [25] reported 59 significantly larger gray matter volume in right posterior parietal cortex of action video game 60 experts compared with non-experts. 61 While positive effects of computer games on cognitive performance have been clearly 62 established for the visual modality, the question of whether related effects also exist in the 63 auditory modality has, to our knowledge, not been investigated so far. Also, whether a cross-64 modal transfer of training exists (that is, auditory improvement by video gaming or vice 65 versa) is still an unresolved issue. Recently, a cross-sectional study by Stewart et al. [26] 66 investigated effects of action video gaming on the participants' performance in auditory 67 cognitive and perceptual tasks, such as attention in listening, speech-in-noise perception, and 68 listening in spatialized noise sentences. However, these authors failed to find any association 69 between action video game play and auditory performance, although positive effects of video 70 game play on a visual task were observed, as known from previous studies. Stewart  The present controlled intervention study started from the hypothesis that sensory

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A pre-post parallel-groups design was employed. Three groups of subjects were tested: (2) the multiple-sources task, in which four different sound sources were presented 160 simultaneously at different locations, one of these a predefined target that had to be localized.

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The multiple-sources task largely resembled that described in [38], with the exception that we

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Individual levels of baseline performance were quite variable (Fig 2) For the main analysis, the percentages of correct responses were transformed into 277 RAU values (see Data analysis). Then, individual data were normalized with reference to 278 baseline performance (Fig 3). Across groups, these values were significantly above zero in factor. There was a significant task × group interaction (F(2,54) = 4.56, p = 0.015,  P 2 = 285 0.14), but no main effects of task (F(1,54) = 1.88, p = 0.18,  P 2 = 0.03) or group (F(2,54) = 286 0.87, p = 0.42,  P 2 = 0.03). Post-hoc testing was conducted using two one-factor ANOVAs 287 (separately for each task) with group as between-subjects factor. An effect of group was found 288 for the multiple-sources task (F(2,54) = 4.47, p = 0.016,  P 2 = 0.14; Fig 3B), but not for the   open question that has to be answered empirically. The brain regions involved in the 346 audiospatial task used here to assess selective auditory spatial attention have recently been that the improvement in audiospatial performance, as was observed in both the video-game 357 and the audio-game groups of the present study, was related to plastic changes in this region.

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Further studies might use brain imaging techniques to investigate potential effects of audio 359 game and video game trainings on audiospatial processing in cortical areas concerned with 360 hearing in "cocktail-party" situations.

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It has been proposed that action video games generally enhance a learning mechanism 362 of probabilistic inference, thus allowing also for far transfer of learned cognitive skills across inference. In this context, it has to be noted that the "cocktail-party" task used here required a 367 spatial decision about the position of the target source presented among distractors. Thus, one 368 could assume that improvement of probabilistic inference should have a beneficial effect on 369 the performance in this task. Also, the two games used here may require probabilistic 370 inference and may induce related learning processes. This may hold true not only for the 371 action audio game, but also for the platform video game since playing requires, in either case, 372 quick decisions in response to unforeseen events. In this regard, the present results can not 373 only be explained by assuming that game training enhanced domain-general attentional skills 374 related to the task, as discussed above, but also by improvement of probabilistic inference 375 with game training. On the basis of the results, it is not possible to decide which of these 376 explanations is more likely.

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It is notable that training-induced improvements were found in the multiple-sources, 378 but not in the single-source, condition. One possible explanation might be that game training 379 had effects on higher-order cognitive functions of spatial hearing, as were relevant in a 380 "cocktail-party" situation, rather than the more basic mechanisms of sound localization 381 required for successfully completing the single-source task. The single-source task could be 382 resolved primarily by evaluation of interaural differences in time and level and allocation of 383 these cues to the egocentric spatial frame of reference (for review, see [45]), whereas the 384 "cocktail-party" task was much more demanding insofar as it additionally involved processes 385 of selective attention, in particular extraction of relevant information and inhibition of 386 distractors. It seems as if repetitive gaming selectively modulated the latter, higher-level 387 processes. However, one has also to consider that the performances already measured in the 388 baseline session of the single-source task were substantially higher than in the multiple-389 sources task, with individual percentages of correct responses of more than 80% in the 390 majority of participants (cf . Fig 2). Although a RAU transformation was used to correct 391 scores for extreme values (cf . Fig 3), this null result must thus be interpreted with some 392 caution since one cannot completely exclude that it was due to a ceiling effect.

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In conclusion, we provided first evidence from data obtained in a controlled 394 intervention study that an action audio game enhanced audiospatial performance in healthy