Dimensionality and Angular Disparity Influence Mental Rotation in Computer Gaming

Computer gaming is one of the most common activities that individuals are indulged in their usual activities concerning interactive systembased entertainment.Visuospatial processing is an essential aspect of mental rotation(MR)in playing computer-games.Previous studies have explored how objects’features affect theMRprocess;however,non-isomorphic 2Dand 3D objects lack a fair comparison.In addition,the effects of these features on brain activation during the MR in computer-games have been less investigated.This study investigates how dimensionality and angular disparity affect brain activation duringMRin computer-games.EEG(electroencephalogram)data were recorded from sixty healthy adults while playing an MR-based computer game.Isomorphic 2D and 3D visual objects with convex and reflex angular disparity were presented in the game.Cluster-based permutation tests were applied on EEG spectral power for frequency range 3.5–30 Hz to identify significant spatio-spectral changes.Also,the band-specific hemispheric lateralization was evaluated to investigate task-specific asymmetry.The results indicated higher alpha desynchronization in the left hemisphere during MR compared to baseline.The fronto-parietal areas showed neural activations during the game with convex angular disparities and 3D objects,for a frequency range of 7.8–14.2Hz and 7.8–10.5Hz,respectively.These areas also showed activations during the game with reflex angular disparities and 2D objects,but for narrower frequency bands,i.e.,8.0–10.0 Hz and 11.0–11.7 Hz,respectively.Left hemispheric dominance was observed for alpha and beta frequencies.However,the right parietal region was notably more dominant for convex angular disparity and 3D objects.Overall,the results showed higher neural activities elicited by convex angular disparities and 3D objects in the game compared to the reflex angles and 2Dobjects.The findings suggest future applications,such as cognitive modeling and controlled MR training using computer games.

Isomorphic 2D/3D Objects and Saccadic Characteristics in Mental Rotation

Mental rotation(MR)is an important aspect of cognitive processing in gaming since transformation andmanipulation of visuospatial information are necessary in order to execute a gaming task.This study provides insights on saccadic characteristics in gaming task performance that involves 2D and 3D isomorphic objects with varying angular disparity.Healthy participants(N=60)performedMR gaming task.Each participantwas tested individually in an acoustic treated lab environment.Gaze behavior data of all participants were recorded during task execution and analyzed to find the changes in spatiotemporal characteristics of saccades associated with the variation in angular disparity and dimensionality.There were four groups with unique combination of angular disparity and dimensionality,each with fifteen participants randomly assigned.Results indicate that the spatial characteristics of the object affect the temporal aspect of saccade(duration),whereas the spatial aspect of the saccade(amplitude)is influenced by the objects’dimension.A longer saccade duration indicates a prolonged suppression of spatial information processing during the MR tasks with objects at convex range angular disparities.Therefore,the MR tasks with convex angular disparity become more complex to process compared to the tasks with reflex angular disparity.MR process is faster and more accurate with 3D objects compared to the 2D objects.There is an interaction between angular disparity and dimensionality in terms of mental demand,such that theMR processing with 2Dobjects in reflex angular disparitywasmoremental demanding than that of convex angular disparity;however,this trend was absent in case of 3Dobjects.Hence,during the MR task,the longer saccade duration implies that the taskswith convex angular disparities become comparativelymore challenging.Also,the lower saccadic amplitude for 2D objects indicates difficulties in processing due to deficient visual features.The findings could help in framing the computer-based game(or videogame)concerningMRabilities for training or rehabilitation purposes.

Dorsal-Ventral Visual Pathways and Object Characteristics:Beamformer Source Analysis of EEG

In performing a gaming task,mental rotation(MR)is one of the important aspects of visuospatial processing.MR involves dorsal-ventral pathways of the brain.Visual objects/models used in computer-games play a crucial role in gaming experience of the users.The visuospatial characteristics of the objects used in the computer-game influence the engagement of dorsal-ventral visual pathways.The current study investigates how the objects’visuospatial characteristics(i.e.,angular disparity and dimensionality)in an MR-based computer-game influence the cortical activities in dorsalventral visual pathways.Both the factors have two levels,angular disparity:convex angle(CA)vs.reflex angle(RA)and dimensionality:2D vs.3D.Sixty healthy adults,aged,18-29 years(M=21.6)were recruited for the study and randomly assigned to four gaming conditions i.e.,15 participants in each group.The multichannel electroencephalogram(EEG)data were recorded from 60 healthy adults while playing the game.The source reconstruction was done for∼3000 sources inside the brain using the Dynamic Imaging of Coherent Sources(DICS)beamforming method forθ1(4-5.75),θ2(5.75-7.5),α1(7.5-9),α2(9-11),α3(11-13),β1(13-17.25),β2(17.25-21.5)Hz frequency sub-bands.The reconstructed neuronal sources were segmented into 68 functionally parcellated brain regions,and the percentage of active sources for each region was computed.Further,the differences across the 68 regions among the four gaming conditions were evaluated using the percentage of active sources.The differences in activation for the dorsal-ventral pathways and some additional brain regions were observed among the four groups.The game with 2D objects and CA showed higher activation than that with 3D objects and RA,respectively.The dorsal pathway was found to be more active in contrast to the ventral pathway.The findings suggest that angular disparity and dimensionality in MR influence the engagement of dorsal-ventral visual pathways in such a way that angular disparity has a greater impact on cortical activation across this region than dimensionality.Also,higher activation for CA as compared to RA irrespective of dimensionality reflects the complexity of spatial information processing under CA.Similarly,greater activation was seen for 2D objects than 3D,indicating difficulty in information processing due to deficient visual features.