A new study suggests that
playing a certain kind of video game strengthens neural connections in the
brains of people with multiple sclerosis, improving cognitive abilities.
Researchers hope to study whether the plasticity induced by video games in MS patients
is linked to improvements in other aspects of their daily lives. They also plan
to look at how the video game can be integrated into a rehabilitation program.
Researchers, led by Dr. Laura
De Giglio, from the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at Sapienza
University in Rome, studied the effects of a video game-based cognitive
rehabilitation program on the thalamus in patients with MS. They used a
collection of Nintendo video games, called Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training,
which train the brain using puzzles, word memory and other mental challenges.
Twenty-four MS patients with
cognitive impairment were randomly assigned to either take part in an
eight-week, home-based rehabilitation program — consisting of 30-minute gaming
sessions, five days per week — or be put on a wait list, serving as the control
group. Patients were evaluated by cognitive tests and by 3-Tesla resting state
functional MRI at baseline and after the eight-week period. At follow-up, the
12 patients in the video-game group had significant increases in thalamic
functional connectivity in brain areas corresponding to the posterior component
of the default mode network, which is one of the most important brain networks
involved in cognition.
The modifications in
functional connectivity shown in the video game group after training
corresponded to significant improvements in test scores assessing sustained
attention and executive function. The results suggest that video-game-based
brain training is an effective option to improve cognitive abilities of
patients with MS.
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