As digital gaming has grown from a leisure activity into a competitive endeavor with college scholarships, celebrity, and large prize pools at stake, players search for ways to enhance their performance, including through coaching, training, and employing tools that yield a performance advantage. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that is presently being explored by esports athletes and competitive gamers. Although shown to modulate cognitive processing in standard laboratory tasks, there is little scientific evidence that tDCS improves performance in digital games, which are visually complex and attentionally demanding environments. We applied tDCS between two sessions of the Stop-Signal Game (SSG; Friehs, Dechant, Vedress, Frings, & Mandryk, 2020). The SSG is a custom-built infinite runner that is based on the Stop-Signal Task (SST; Verbruggen et al., 2019). Consequently, the SSG can be used to evaluate response inhibition as measured by Stop-Signal Reaction Time (SSRT), but in an enjoyable 3D game experience. We used anodal, offline tDCS to stimulate the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC); a 9 cm² anode was always positioned over the rDLPFC while the 35 cm² cathode was placed over the left deltoid. We hypothesized that anodal tDCS would enhance neural processing (as measured by a decrease in SSRT) and improve performance, while sham stimulation (i.e., the control condition with a faked stimulation) should lead to no significant change. In a sample of N = 45 healthy adults a significant session x tDCS-condition interaction emerged in the expected direction. Subsequent analysis confirmed that the statistically significant decrease in SSRT after anodal tDCS to the rDLPFC was not due to a general change in reaction times. These results provide initial evidence that tDCS can influence performance in digital games.

随着数字游戏已从休闲活动发展为具有大学奖学金，名人和大额奖池的竞争性活动，玩家寻求提高表现的方法，包括通过教练，培训和使用产生绩效优势的工具。经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）是一种非侵入性的脑部刺激技术，目前正被电竞运动员和竞技游戏玩家探索。尽管显示出它可以在标准实验室任务中调节认知过程，但几乎没有科学证据表明tDCS可以改善数字游戏的性能，因为数字游戏是视觉复杂且需要注意的环境。我们在停止信号游戏的两次会议之间应用了tDCS（SSG； Freehs，Dechant，Vedress，Frings和Mandryk，2020年）。SSG是基于停止信号任务（SST; Verbruggen等人，2019）的定制无限流道。因此，SSG可用于评估通过停止信号反应时间（SSRT）测得的响应抑制，但可带来令人愉悦的3D游戏体验。我们使用阳极离线tDCS刺激右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFC）；9平方厘米的阳极始终放置在rDLPFC上方，而35平方厘米的阴极始终放置在左侧三角肌上方。我们假设，阳极tDCS可以增强神经处理能力（通过减少SSRT来衡量）并改善性能，而假刺激（即假刺激的控制条件）应不会导致显着变化。在一个样本中 SSG可用于评估通过停止信号反应时间（SSRT）测得的响应抑制，但可提供令人愉悦的3D游戏体验。我们使用阳极离线tDCS刺激右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFC）；9平方厘米的阳极始终放置在rDLPFC上方，而35平方厘米的阴极始终放置在左侧三角肌上方。我们假设，阳极tDCS可以增强神经处理能力（通过减少SSRT来衡量）并改善性能，而假刺激（即假刺激的控制条件）应不会导致显着变化。在一个样本中 SSG可用于评估通过停止信号反应时间（SSRT）测得的响应抑制，但可提供令人愉悦的3D游戏体验。我们使用阳极离线tDCS刺激右背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFC）；9平方厘米的阳极始终放置在rDLPFC上方，而35平方厘米的阴极始终放置在左侧三角肌上方。我们假设，阳极tDCS可以增强神经处理能力（通过减少SSRT来衡量）并改善性能，而假刺激（即假刺激的控制条件）应不会导致显着变化。在一个样本中 9平方厘米的阳极始终放置在rDLPFC上方，而35平方厘米的阴极始终放置在左侧三角肌上方。我们假设，阳极tDCS可以增强神经处理能力（通过减少SSRT来衡量）并改善性能，而假刺激（即假刺激的控制条件）应不会导致显着变化。在一个样本中 9平方厘米的阳极始终放置在rDLPFC上方，而35平方厘米的阴极始终放置在左侧三角肌上方。我们假设，阳极tDCS可以增强神经处理能力（通过减少SSRT来衡量）并改善性能，而假刺激（即假刺激的控制条件）应不会导致显着变化。在一个样本中N  = 45名健康成年人，在预期的方向出现了重要的会话x tDCS-条件相互作用。随后的分析证实，在阳极tDCS转化为rDLPFC后，SSRT的统计学显着下降不是由于反应时间的普遍变化。这些结果提供了初步的证据，证明tDCS可以影响数字游戏的性能。