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Neural substrate of a cognitive intervention program using Go game: a positron emission tomography study

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Abstract

Background

Influence of cognitive intervention programs on brain activity has not been enough explored.

Aims

The aims of the present study were to clarify changes in brain activity from a cognitive intervention program utilizing the board game “Go” and to examine the relationship between brain activity and the acquisition of Go skills.

Methods

Eighteen community-dwelling older adults were randomly assigned either to an intervention group (IG), in which members attended 12 Go lessons either in groups or individually using tablet computers, or a control group (CG), in which members attended health education lectures unrelated to Go. Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET), cognitive assessments, and Go tests were performed before and after the intervention.

Results

The results showed different patterns of regional FDG uptake in both groups: regional cerebral glucose metabolism was significantly increased in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and bilateral putamen (p < 0.01; cluster level) in the IG, and in the left superior frontal gyrus in the CG, (p < 0.01; cluster level). Furthermore, Go test scores were significantly improved in the IG (p < 0.05), and a significant association was observed between changes in Go test scores and glucose metabolism in the left MTG (p < 0.05).

Conclusions and discussion

This study indicates that a cognitive intervention program using Go may enhance brain activity. Further studies with larger populations and longer observation periods are needed to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying our Go intervention program.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants and our colleagues, especially Kimi Estela Kobayashi-Cuya, Susumu Ogawa and Momoko Kobayashi for their cooperation in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [Grant Number: KAKENHI 16K13036].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Team for Social Participation and Community Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0015, Japan

    Ai Iizuka, Hiroyuki Suzuki & Yoshinori Fujiwara

  2. Research Team for Neuroimaging, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan

    Kenji Ishii, Kei Wagatsuma, Kenji Ishibashi, Airin Onishi & Mika Tanaka

  3. Research Team for Promoting Independence and Mental Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan

    Shuichi Awata

Authors
  1. Ai Iizuka
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  2. Kenji Ishii
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  3. Kei Wagatsuma
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  4. Kenji Ishibashi
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  5. Airin Onishi
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  6. Mika Tanaka
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  7. Hiroyuki Suzuki
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  8. Shuichi Awata
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  9. Yoshinori Fujiwara
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Contributions

AI was responsible for developing the study design, conducting intervention program, and analysis and interpretation data. KI contributed to data collection, analysis and interpretation of data. KW and KI contributed to data collection and the experimental performance. AO and MT contributed to the analysis of data. HS and SA contributed to conducting the intervention program. YF supervised the research accomplishment. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AI and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ai Iizuka.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of human rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (TMIG; Acceptance no. 84, 1, 2017) and is registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trial Registry (UMIN000030595).

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All participants provided written informed consent before enrollment.

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Iizuka, A., Ishii, K., Wagatsuma, K. et al. Neural substrate of a cognitive intervention program using Go game: a positron emission tomography study. Aging Clin Exp Res 32, 2349–2355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01462-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01462-6

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