Jason Colman

ITAG 2013 Presentation

17 October 2013

Investigating Multi Player Online

Video Games for Brain Injured People

Jason Colman

HelloI'm Jason Colman

I'm a PhD student at the School of Computing,

University of Portsmouth, UK

My supervisors:

Dr Paul Gnanayutham

Dr Jim Briggs

Dr Louise Turner

Dr Alice Good

In this presentation...

I will describe a pilot experiment

designed to find out if a

multi-player online video game

could provide a form of cognitive therapy

for people who have a brain injury.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that

Multi-player online video games can provide a form of cognitive therapy for brain-injured people

Background

Method

Results

Discussion

Next steps

I'll Talk About...

Background

Established video game therapies

Social features

of MMOsPlaying a

multi-player online game could provide a

form of cognitive therapy, due to the social interactions

it fosters

Quality of life

dependent on social network

Cognitive and emotional

rehab connected

Loneliness Neuroplastici

ty

Method

Participants

Participants recruited from support groups

n = 3 brain-injured participants

10 Other volunteers

Experimental Design

Single subject (“n = 1”) research design

Time series data

The intervention is introduced, then removed

Each participant is their own control

Multiple participants improves external validity

Procedure

Game Design

Integrated Cognitive Tests

Stroop tests

Trail-making tests

Reaction time test

Results

Ideal Results

Actual Results

There was an overall improvement in reaction time, but not between “game” and “no game” weeks

No consistent improvement in Stroop test or Trail-Making test results in “game” weeks

Discussion

Tricky to get all participants logged in at the same time

Tricky to recruit the participants who might benefit most

Best values for experimental parameters are not known

Next Steps

Recruit more participants

Maybe adjust experimental parameters, such as phase duration

More game features to encourage communication and collaboration

Different genres, which could be turn-based

Case studies

Last Word…

It is not easy to induce perceptual or cognitive changes through video games… (Green & Bavelier, 2006)

But it’s worth persevering, as the potential gain is a new kind of therapy for brain-injured people.

Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2006). The cognitive neuroscience of video games. Digital media: Transformations in human communication, pp. 211-223

Thanks!

Hypothesis is Multi-player online video games can provide a form of cognitive therapy for brain-injured people

www.amju.com/mygame

@VidGameTherapy