Mindfulness video game improves connectivity of the fronto-parietal attentional network in adolescents:

Mindfulness video game improves connectivity of the fronto-parietal attentional network in adolescents: A multi-modal imaging study

Mindfulness video game improves connectivity of the fronto-parietal attentional network in adolescents: A multi-modal imaging study

Elena G. Patsenko, Nagesh Adluru, Rasmus M. Birn, Diane E. Stodola, Tammi R. A. Kral, Reza Farajian, Lisa Flook, Cory A. Burghy, Constance Steinkuehler & Richard J. Davidson

Abstract

"Mindfulness training has been shown to improve attention and change the underlying brain substrates in adults. Most mindfulness training programs involve a myriad of techniques, and it is difficult to attribute changes to any particular aspect of the program. Here, we created a video game, Tenacity, which models a specific mindfulness technique – focused attention on one’s breathing – and assessed its potential to train an attentional network in adolescents. A combined analysis of resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) yielded convergent results – change in communication within the left fronto-parietal network after two weeks of playing Tenacity compared to a control game. Rs-FC analysis showed greater connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in the Tenacity group. Importantly, changes in left dlPFC – IPC rs-FC and changes in structural connectivity of the white matter tract that connects these regions –left superior longitudinal fasiculus (SLF) – were associated with changes in performance on an attention task. Finally, changes in left dlPFC – IPC rs-FC correlated with the change in left SLF structural connectivity as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) in the Tenacity group only."

Reference

Patsenko, E. G., Adluru, N., Birn, R. M., Stodola, D. E., Kral, T. R., Farajian, R., ... & Davidson, R. J. (2019). Mindfulness video game improves connectivity of the fronto-parietal attentional network in adolescents: A multi-modal imaging study. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53393-x

Keywords

mindfulness, video games, adolescents