This is your brain on Scrabble: Neural correlates of visual word recognition in competitive Scrabble players as measured during task and resting-state. (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Protzner, Andrea B.; Hargreaves, Ian S.; Campbell, James A.; Myers-Stewart, Kaia; van Hees, Sophia; Goodyear, Bradley G.; Sargious, Peter; Pexman, Penny M.
• Is Part Of: Cortex. Volume 75(2016)
• Page Start: 204
• Page End: 219
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: Expertise -- fMRI -- Language networks -- Lexical processing -- Resting-state; BA Brodmann's area -- COWAT Controlled Oral Word Association Test -- LDT lexical decision task -- LIFG left inferior frontal gyrus -- LV latent variable -- NAART North American Adult Reading Test -- NASPA North American Scrabble Players Association -- PLS partial least squares analysis -- RART Revised Author Recognition Test -- WAIS Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale; Neuropsychology -- Periodicals; Nervous system -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Behavior -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; 612.825
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.03.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0010-9452

Abstract

Abstract: Competitive Scrabble players devote considerable time to studying words and practicing Scrabble-related skills (e.g., anagramming). This training is associated with extraordinary performance in lexical decision, the standard visual word recognition task (Hargreaves, Pexman, Zdrazilova & Sargious, 2012). In the present study we investigated the neural consequences of this lexical expertise. Using both event-related and resting-state fMRI, we compared brain activity and connectivity in 12 competitive Scrabble experts with 12 matched non-expert controls. Results showed that when engaged in the lexical decision task (LDT), Scrabble experts made use of brain regions not generally associated with meaning retrieval in visual word recognition, but rather those associated with working memory and visual perception. The analysis of resting-state data also showed group differences, such that a different network of brain regions was associated with higher levels of Scrabble-related skill in experts than in controls.