Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 52, Issue 1, 1 August 2010, Pages 9-19
NeuroImage

White matter neuroplastic changes in long-term trained players of the game of “Baduk”1 (GO): A voxel-based diffusion-tensor imaging study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.04.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Currently, one of the most challenging issues in modern neuroscience is learning-induced neural plasticity. Many researchers have identified activation-dependent structural brain plasticity in gray and white matter. The game of Baduk is known to require many cognitive processes, and long-term training in such processes would be expected to cause structural changes in related brain areas. We conducted voxel-based analyses of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) data and found that, compared to inexperienced controls, long-term trained Baduk players developed larger regions of white matter with increased fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the frontal, cingulum, and striato-thalamic areas that are related to attentional control, working memory, executive regulation, and problem-solving. In addition, inferior temporal regions with increased FA indicate that Baduk experts tend to develop a task-specific template for the game, as compared to controls. In contrast, decreased FA found in dorsolateral premotor and parietal areas indicate that Baduk experts were less likely than were controls to use structures related to load-dependent memory capacity. Right-side dominance in Baduk experts suggests that the tasks involved are mainly spatial processes. Altogether, long-term Baduk training appears to cause structural brain changes associated with many of the cognitive aspects necessary for game play, and investigation of the mechanism underpinning such changes might be helpful for improving higher-order cognitive capacities, such as learning, abstract reasoning, and self-control, which can facilitate education and cognitive therapies.

Introduction

Recent researches have suggested that, in adult brains, structural neuroplasticity plays a crucial role relative to functional plasticity in adaptation to the external environment and pathological conditions (Driemeyer et al., 2008). Many studies have investigated structural plasticity in human and animal brains. Animal studies have revealed experience-dependent and lesion-induced structural plasticity in both developing and adult brains (Butz et al., 2009, Keck et al., 2008). Studies of neuroplasticity in humans have reported that activation-dependent structural brain plasticity was associated with a transient and highly selective increase in brain gray matter in elderly subjects who learned three-ball cascade juggling (Driemeyer et al., 2008). Long-term musical training such as keyboard or piano practice, also caused regionally specific structural plasticity in gray or white matter (Bengtsson et al., 2005, Hyde et al., 2009), and several studies have reported associations between meditation training and neuroplasticity, indicating that meditation can improve attention and self-regulation (Lazar et al., 2005, Luders et al., 2009, Tang et al., 2007). In addition, studies have reported structural brain changes under many pathological conditions, such as repetitive painful stimulation (Teutsch et al., 2008), amnesia/multiple sclerosis (Manning, 2008), occipital lobectomy (Govindan et al., 2008), chronic schizophrenia (Oh et al., 2009), and cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome (de Lange et al., 2008).

Baduk is a traditional Far Eastern board game. It probably originated in China or the Himalayas and is believed to be about 3000 years old; it has also been played in Korea for a long time (http://english.baduk.or.kr). It is a game of skill and, thus, probably involves many cognitive capabilities, just like chess, its Western counterpart (Barrett, 2002, Yoshikawa et al., 1999). Baduk is basically a game of territory: the board, marked with a grid of 19 lines, may be thought of as an area of land to be shared between the two players. One player uses black pieces (called ‘stones’) and the other uses white ones. A simple rule govern where and how the stones are moved onto the intersections on the board by the two players, and each player's objective is to occupy more territory than the other player and to prevent the opposite player from gaining territory by surrounding and capturing the opponent's stones. In contrast, chess pieces have specific identities and roles and are moved according to specific individual rules. The two games share common executive actions with respect to spatial positioning, but the former is believed to require more complex strategies than the latter (Atherton et al., 2003, Chen et al., 2003). Two recent studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of Baduk and chess (Atherton et al., 2003, Chen et al., 2003). They found that both games activated similar areas associated with the “game” condition, such as bilateral activation in the pre-motor area of the frontal lobe as well as several regions of the parietal and occipital lobes. These areas are engaged during attention, spatial perception, imagery, mental rotation, and mnemonic processes. The authors had initially hypothesized that both games would involve a high degree of frontal lobe function, especially in the so-called general intelligence domain, corresponding to the lateral prefrontal cortex (Duncan et al., 2000, Sternberg, 2000). However, the results indicated that neither game activated the g-intelligence area; the games primarily activated spatial mechanisms rather than logical and computational skills. The fMRI results showed that Baduk's main effect was to facilitate right hemispheric dominance, suggesting that it requires more human-specific skills than does chess, which was associated with left-side dominance; this also makes it more difficult to create computer programs for Baduk than for chess (Barrett, 2002, Chen et al., 2003, Yoshikawa et al., 1999). Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider structural changes in addition to studies of functional development to clarify how Baduk affects brain organization (Guye et al., 2008). Therefore, this study used diffusion-tensor imaging to investigate how long-term Baduk training affects white matter structural plasticity (Izhikevich and Edelman, 2008).

The objective of the study was to elucidate structural brain development related to the cognitive components needed to play Baduk, based on white matter neuroplastic changes. Because fractional anisotropy (FA) values reveal the structural integrity and coherence of white matter tracts, we conducted voxel-based group analyses on the FA maps of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) between Baduk experts and unskilled controls. This process helped us to clarify the developmental course of the brain with regard to the underlying cognitions associated with long-term Baduk training in order to more fully understand human cognitive mechanisms in terms of structural neuroplasticity, and to assess the possibility of using mental training activities such as Baduk for brain development (Bengtsson et al., 2005, Tang et al., 2007).

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 17 experienced Baduk players (14 men, three women) were recruited from the Korea Baduk Association. One woman's diffusion-weighted volume was corrupted and therefore excluded from analyses (see Image preprocessing and template preparation for the detailed procedures used to exclude corrupted volume). All of the remaining 16 players had trained for about 12 years (12 ± 1.55); eight were professional players and eight were still training. Professional qualification for Baduk differs by

Demographic characteristics

Table 1 lists the differences in the demographic characteristics of Baduk experts and controls. No significant group differences appeared for gender (χ2 = 1.793, df = 1, p = 0.181). No significant group difference appeared for age (mean ± SD, 17.25 ± 1.125 for Baduk experts, 17.95 ± 1.682 for controls; t = -1.460, df = 31.530, p = 0.154). However, Baduk experts demonstrated slightly lower IQs than did controls (mean ± SD, 93.19 ± 10.42 for Baduk experts, 101.21 ± 13.11 for controls; t = -2.016, df = 32.910, p = 0.052) as

Discussion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first DTI study to investigate the structural brain development of WM tracts involved during Baduk training. First, considering the robust areas common to the results of two aforementioned voxel-based analyses, skilled players exhibited increased FA in several regions, as compared to controls, revealing multiple significant structures (Table 2, Table 3 and Fig. 1, Fig. 2): in the frontal lobe, the right medial frontal (or anterior cingulate) WM, right

Conclusions

The results of our study revealed that Baduk experts develop structural fronto–cingulo–striato–thalamic connectivity, as evidenced by increased FA of WM tracts, as compared with those of non-experts. These structures are associated with cognitive processes that include spatial perception, attention, working memory, executive control, and problem solving (Chen et al., 2003). In addition, the experts' increased FA in inferior temporal areas indicates that, unlike the situation in controls,

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by World Class University program through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (R32-10142). We also give special thanks to Korea Baduk Association for their wholehearted support of the present study on DTI including the recruitment of Baduk experts.

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    “Baduk” is the Korean name which replaces the Japanese name “GO,” designating a traditional Far Eastern board game with two kinds of pieces (black and white stones) manipulated by two opponents. For game-play details, see Introduction.

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