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Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study

The present study aimed to analyze differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (theta, alpha, and beta) between participants who won (winning group) and those who lost (losing group) in three different chess games: against their same Elo (100% chess games), 25% over their Elo (125%...

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Autores principales: Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro, Villafaina, Santos, Collado-Mateo, Daniel, Cano-Plasencia, Ricardo, Gusi, Narcis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981879/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31861658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010046
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author Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro
Villafaina, Santos
Collado-Mateo, Daniel
Cano-Plasencia, Ricardo
Gusi, Narcis
author_facet Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro
Villafaina, Santos
Collado-Mateo, Daniel
Cano-Plasencia, Ricardo
Gusi, Narcis
author_sort Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro
collection PubMed
description The present study aimed to analyze differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (theta, alpha, and beta) between participants who won (winning group) and those who lost (losing group) in three different chess games: against their same Elo (100% chess games), 25% over their Elo (125% chess games), and 25% under their Elo (75% chess games). EEG was assessed at baseline and during the chess games. Method: 14 male chess players (age: 35.36 ± 13.77 and Elo: 1921 ± 170) played three games of 3 min, plus two additional seconds per move, while EEG was assessed. There were three difficulty levels (75%, 100%, and 125%), with two games (one with white pieces and another with black pieces) per level. The winning group showed higher theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain regions when difficulty increased (p-value < 0.05). Besides this, alpha power showed higher values (p-value < 0.05) in 125% games than in 75% chess games in C3, T3, T4, T5, and T6. The losing group showed a significant decrease (p-value < 0.05) in the beta and alpha power spectrum in frontal, central, parietotemporal, and occipital areas, when the opponent’s difficulty increased. Moreover, between groups, analyses showed higher theta power in the losing group than in the winning group, in C3, T5, T6, P4, and Pz (p-value < 0.05). Therefore, the winning group was able to adapt to each difficulty level, increasing theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain areas, as the efficiency hypothesis postulated. These changes were not observed in the losing group. Moreover, increases in alpha power during the most difficult games, in comparison with the easier, could have been caused by creative ideation and divergent thinking, as participants looked for alternative solutions against a higher-skilled opponent.
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spelling pubmed-69818792020-02-07 Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro Villafaina, Santos Collado-Mateo, Daniel Cano-Plasencia, Ricardo Gusi, Narcis Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The present study aimed to analyze differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (theta, alpha, and beta) between participants who won (winning group) and those who lost (losing group) in three different chess games: against their same Elo (100% chess games), 25% over their Elo (125% chess games), and 25% under their Elo (75% chess games). EEG was assessed at baseline and during the chess games. Method: 14 male chess players (age: 35.36 ± 13.77 and Elo: 1921 ± 170) played three games of 3 min, plus two additional seconds per move, while EEG was assessed. There were three difficulty levels (75%, 100%, and 125%), with two games (one with white pieces and another with black pieces) per level. The winning group showed higher theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain regions when difficulty increased (p-value < 0.05). Besides this, alpha power showed higher values (p-value < 0.05) in 125% games than in 75% chess games in C3, T3, T4, T5, and T6. The losing group showed a significant decrease (p-value < 0.05) in the beta and alpha power spectrum in frontal, central, parietotemporal, and occipital areas, when the opponent’s difficulty increased. Moreover, between groups, analyses showed higher theta power in the losing group than in the winning group, in C3, T5, T6, P4, and Pz (p-value < 0.05). Therefore, the winning group was able to adapt to each difficulty level, increasing theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain areas, as the efficiency hypothesis postulated. These changes were not observed in the losing group. Moreover, increases in alpha power during the most difficult games, in comparison with the easier, could have been caused by creative ideation and divergent thinking, as participants looked for alternative solutions against a higher-skilled opponent. MDPI 2019-12-19 2020-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6981879/ /pubmed/31861658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010046 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fuentes-García, Juan Pedro
Villafaina, Santos
Collado-Mateo, Daniel
Cano-Plasencia, Ricardo
Gusi, Narcis
Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title_full Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title_fullStr Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title_full_unstemmed Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title_short Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study
title_sort chess players increase the theta power spectrum when the difficulty of the opponent increases: an eeg study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981879/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31861658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010046
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