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 (
-value <0.05). Besides this, alpha power showed higher values (
-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 (
-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 (
-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.
Superior cognitive performance can be viewed from an intelligence perspective, emphasising general properties of the human information processing system (such as mental speed and working memory), and ...from an expertise perspective, highlighting the indispensable role of elaborated domain-specific knowledge and acquired skills. In exploring its neurophysiological basis, recent research has provided considerable evidence of the neural efficiency hypothesis of intelligence, indicating lower and more focussed brain activation in brighter individuals. The present EEG study investigates the impacts of intelligence and expertise on cognitive performance and the accompanying cortical activation patterns in the domain of tournament chess. Forty-seven tournament chess players of varying intelligence and expertise level worked on tasks drawing on mental speed, memory, and reasoning. Half of the tasks were representative for chess, while the other half was not. The cortical activation was quantified by means of event-related desynchronisation (ERD) in the upper alpha band. Independent effects of expertise and intelligence emerged at both, the performance and the neurophysiological level. Brighter participants performed better than less intelligent ones which was associated with more efficient brain functioning (lower ERD) across all tasks. Additionally, a high expertise level was beneficial for good task performance but exerted a topographically differentiated influence on the cortical activation patterns. The findings suggest that superior cognitive performance and the underlying cortical activation are not only a function of knowledge and domain-specific competences but also of the general efficiency of the information processing system.
A q-Queens Problem. II. The square board Chaiken, Seth; Hanusa, Christopher R. H.; Zaslavsky, Thomas
Journal of algebraic combinatorics,
05/2015, Volume:
41, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We apply to the
n
×
n
chessboard the counting theory from Part I for nonattacking placements of chess pieces with unbounded straight-line moves, such as the queen. Part I showed that the number of ...ways to place
q
identical nonattacking pieces is given by a quasipolynomial function of
n
of degree
2
q
, whose coefficients are (essentially) polynomials in
q
that depend cyclically on
n
. Here, we study the periods of the quasipolynomial and its coefficients, which are bounded by functions, not well understood, of the piece’s move directions, and we develop exact formulas for the very highest coefficients. The coefficients of the three highest powers of
n
do not vary with
n
. On the other hand, we present simple pieces for which the fourth coefficient varies periodically. We develop detailed properties of counting quasipolynomials that will be applied in sequels to partial queens, whose moves are subsets of those of the queen, and the nightrider, whose moves are extended knight’s moves. We conclude with the first, though strange, formula for the classical
n
-Queens Problem and with several conjectures and open problems.
Chess Practice as a Protective Factor in Dementia Lillo-Crespo, Manuel; Forner-Ruiz, Mar; Riquelme-Galindo, Jorge ...
International journal of environmental research and public health,
06/2019, Volume:
16, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
dementia is one of the main causes of disability and dependency among the older population worldwide, producing physical, psychological, social and economic impact in those affected, caregivers, ...families and societies. However, little is known about dementia protective factors and their potential benefits against disease decline in the diagnosed population. Cognitive stimulating activities seem to be protective factors against dementia, though there is paucity in the scientific evidence confirming this, with most publications focusing on prevention in non-diagnosed people. A scoping review was conducted to explore whether chess practice could mitigate signs, deliver benefits, or improve cognitive capacities of individuals diagnosed with dementia through the available literature, and therefore act as a protective factor.
twenty-one articles were selected after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria.
the overall findings stress that chess could lead to prevention in non-diagnosed populations, while little has been shown with respect to individuals already diagnosed. However, some authors suggest its capacity as a protective factor due to its benefits, and the evidence related to the cognitive functions associated with the game.
although chess is indirectly assumed to be a protective factor due to its cognitive benefits, more studies are required to demonstrate, with strong evidence, whether chess could be a protective factor against dementia within the diagnosed population.
This article focuses on the recent advances in the field of reinforcement learning (RL) as well as the present state–of–the–art applications in games. First, we give a general panorama of RL while at ...the same time we underline the way that it has progressed to the current degree of application. Moreover, we conduct a keyword analysis of the literature on deep learning (DL) and reinforcement learning in order to analyze to what extent the scientific study is based on games such as ATARI, Chess, and Go. Finally, we explored a range of public data to create a unified framework and trends for the present and future of this sector (RL in games). Our work led us to conclude that deep RL accounted for roughly 25.1% of the DL literature, and a sizable amount of this literature focuses on RL applications in the game domain, indicating the road for newer and more sophisticated algorithms capable of outperforming human performance.
In real-time strategy (RTS) games, to defeat their opponents, players need to choose and implement the correct sequential actions. Because RTS games like StarCraft II are real-time, players have a ...very limited time to choose how to develop their strategy. In addition, players can only partially observe the parts of the map that they have explored. Therefore, unlike Chess or Go, players do not know what their opponents are doing. For these reasons, applying generally used artificial intelligence models to forecast sequential actions in RTS games is a challenge. To address this, we propose depthwise separable convolution-based multimodal deep learning (DESEM) for forecasting sequential actions in the game StarCraft II. DESEM performs multimodal learning using high-dimensional frames and action labels simultaneously as inputs. We use a depthwise separable convolution as the backbone network for extracting features from high-dimensional frames. In addition, we propose a weighted loss function to resolve class imbalances. We use 1,978 StarCraft II replays where the Terrans win in a Terran vs. Protoss game. The experimental results show that the proposed depthwise separable convolution is superior to the conventional convolution. Furthermore, we demonstrate that multimodal learning and the weighted loss function contribute significantly to improving forecasting performance.
The aim of the present study was to investigate how the heart and the brain react to playing chess with a computer versus in a real context in chess players. We also aim to investigate if ...familiarization with simulated practice leads to changes in heart rate variability (HRV) and the electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectrum. We designed a cross-sectional study, enrolling 27 chess players. They were randomly assigned to 3 minutes plus 2-second chess games: one with a computer (simulated scenario), and another in a real context. Additionally, participants were divided into two groups according to their level of familiarization of playing chess in a computer context. While they were playing, HRV and EEG were continuously recorded. Differences in HRV and EEG theta power spectrum between playing chess in a real or a simulated scenario were not found in chess players (
-value > 0.05). When participants were divided into groups (familiarized and unfamiliarized with simulated chess practice), significant differences were observed in HRV and EEG (
-value < 0.05). The EEG theta power spectrum was significantly lower, and HRV was higher in unfamiliarized players during the simulated scenario, which could indicate that they were less focused in a simulated environment than in a real context. Therefore, familiarization with simulated environments should be taken into account during the training process to achieve the best performance.
Expertise researchers have traditionally shied away from studying the highest levels of achievement in favor of studying basic cognitive processes, such as memory and categorization. In this article, ...we present a different approach that is focused on capturing superior (expert) performance on representative tasks that reveal the essential characteristics of expertise in a given domain. In domains where expert performance is measurable, acquisition is gradual and the highest levels are only attained after 10 years of intense preparation--even for the most "talented." Analyses of reproducibly superior performance show that it is mediated by physiological adaptations and cognitive skills acquired as a result of the cumulative effects of special practice activities (deliberate practice). It appears that the genes necessary to attain such adaptations and expert skills can be activated in healthy children--the only clear exceptions to date being genes that control body size and height. Our knowledge of how experts acquire their superior skills provides insights into the potential for human adaptation and skill acquisition and has important implications for theories of the structure of general and expert cognition, as well as for training interventions in applied psychology and education.
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