Rewiring the frontal lobe: could educational games be a solution for drug addiction?

Author: 
Sultan Nasserddin., Amena Allouch.,Banan Nasserddin.,Karean Khalifeh., Mousa Hamdan and Khalil Hnaineh

Responses, senses, movement, emotions, language, communication, thinking, and memory are the responsibility of that complicated organ of nervous tissue: the brain. The part that is mainly responsible for cognitive function is the frontal lobe, where all our movements, tasks, and skills are related to it. Drug addiction has many effects on the frontal lobe because it affects self-control and behavioral monitoring, emotion regulation, motivation, awareness and self-analysis, attention and flexibility, memory, learning, and decision making. Thus the primary objective of this study is to investigate if we can rewire the frontal lobe by using educational games. Brain waves were measured using an “EmotivEpoc” machine for a group of students (5 students) from Safir High School-aged between 12 and 16 years old. The brain waves measurement was divided into two stages; the first stage: Measuring the brain waves in a relaxed state, the second stage: Measuring brain waves while playing an educational game (3 levels from easy to expert), and an interview with a doctor specialist in addiction treatment was done. The average power band and P-values for Beta H. and Gamma waves from six electrodes on frontal location between the two stages were calculated. The results show significant P-values (P<0.05) mainly in AF3, F7, and F8, and noticeable differences in the average power band in Beta H. and Gamma waves between relaxation state and when playing educational games at the six sensor locations (AF3, F7, F3, F4. F8 and AF4).

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DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2021.25267.5041
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