Comparative survey of go/no-go results to identify the inhibitory control ability change of Japanese children

This research, conducted in 1998 and 2008, uses go/no-go data to investigate the fundamentals of cognitive functioning in the inhibitory control ability of Japanese children. 844 subjects from kindergarten to junior high school participated in go/no-go task experiments. Performance of go/no-go tasks, which are frequently used to investigate response inhibition, measures a variety of cognitive components besides response inhibition. With normal brain development, the ability to inhibit responses improves substantially in adolescence. An increase over time in the error rate during the go/no-go tasks of subjects of the same age indicates that these processes are not functioning properly. Comparisons between the 1998 and 2008 data revealed several differences in error rates. In 2008, there were increases in the number of errors in groups from each age range. The comparison also revealed that overall error rates peaked at later ages in the 2008 subjects. Taken together, these results show changing conditions in the inhibitory function of the prefrontal cortex. However, the reason for these changing conditions remains unclear. While a lifestyle questionnaire revealed several differences in factors such as bedtimes and hours spent watching TV, analysis did not reveal a significant correlation.ArticleBioPsychoSocial Medicine.8(1):14(2014)journal articl

B. I. T. : Development of a dynamic visualization tool for Bayesian inference on normal distributions

Bayesian inference Tool (B. I. T.) is a software program developed to support medical professionals and students in the application of Bayesian inference to medical decision-making and education. This software program makes it possible to visualize the posterior probability distributions of Bayesian inference. In addition, its interface aims to facilitate the intuitive understanding of the operative procedures. For many cases of Bayesian inference with normal distributions, the graphical representation of the posterior probability distribution changes dynamically when the input value is assigned by the user with the use of a computer mouse; this procedure also enables the dynamic calculation of the posterior probability. When operating this software, it is desirable for the user to have basic knowledge and understanding of the presuppositions as well as applications of Bayesian inference

Comparison of cortical activation during Mahjong game play in a video game setting and a real-life setting

The purpose of this study was to compare the hemodynamic changes that occur during Mahjong game play in virtual and real-life settings. Fourteen healthy right-handed men (average age ± standard deviation; 36.7 ± 14.9 years) played: 1) a Mahjong solitaire game on a video console against virtual rivals; 2) a Mahjong game against human opponents without conversation; and 3) a Mahjong game against human opponents with conversation. We measured oxygenated hemoglobin concentration at 44 locations over both hemispheres during Mahjong game play in each setting using near-infrared spectroscopy. The increase in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration at several locations, including Broca’s area, the somatosensory cortex, the somatosensory association cortex, the supramarginal gyrus part of Wernicke’s area, the primary and auditory association cortex, the angular gyrus part of Wernicke’s area, and the associative visual cortex was greater during game play in the real-life settings than during game play in the video game setting. There were no significant differences during game play in real-life settings without and with conversation. Each cortical area correlated with broad or specific areas. The common correlation areas were found at Angular gyrus part of Wernicke’s area of left hemisphere during real-life settings without and with conversation, but not during game play in a video game setting. These results suggest that the brain responds differently to game play in real world and virtual world settings, and indicate that comparison of games played in the virtual world and the real world may be an effective model to enhance understanding of the effects of video game on the brain.ArticleBiochemistry & Analytical Biochemistry.4(2):164(2015)journal articl