London, 27 March
Video gamers can significantly improve their esport skills by training for just 10 minutes each day, a new study has revealed.
The study also found that new gamers benefited the most when wearing a standard headset delivering a direct transcranial normal stimulation (tDCS) for 20 minutes prior to training sessions.
“Our study found that new gamers who received tDCS over their motor cortex before training improved their performance on the specific task over five days, far more than beginners who trained after there was no such motivation, “said researcher Mark Campbell, director of Lero ‘s Esports Science Research Lab (ESRL).
For the study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, participants had a standard headset designed to deliver a standard transcranial stimulus (tDCS).
However, some received no encouragement, others just a ‘sham’ treatment, and the rest received a 20-minute demonstration.
“One of the original and most prominent esports over the past 20 years is the first-person shooter (FPS) shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO),” the researcher said.
The researchers said that, despite the team’s findings, tDCS may be particularly beneficial in the initial stages of action learning.
“Stroke patients, for example, may benefit from tDCS at the beginning of their rehabilitation process when they learn complex movements that were once automated,” Campbell said.