Whilst prior research has assessed the cause and influences of affective prosody, few have looked at the extent to which this process is modulated. Spatial selective attention is said to greatly influence the processing of emotional cues, however previous research looks to the visual rather than auditory domain, prompting further research. Where study has suggested video game use influences the processing of higher cognitive function, meta-analysis has said more research is also needed on this improved information processing, inspiring this study as a result. The present study used EEG to investigate the effects of spatial selective attention on the processing of affective prosody (AP), in action video game players (AVGPs) compared to non-gamers (NVGPs). Through use of an auditory oddball experiment, participants were presented with a series of German non-words, asked to attend to one position and detect infrequent deviant stimuli. Both behavioural and ERP indices of stimulus processing were assessed, with mean amplitudes calculated for 3-time epochs at components of interest N1, P2 and P3. Overall, performance accuracy of AVGPs was found to be better than NVGPs, despite equal reaction times found among groups. Although attention was found to modulate AP processing at both N1 and P3, this modulation was found to only occur for NVGPs at this later stage. The idea of improved automatic AP processing due to video game use is therefore highlighted, promoting the utility of video games as a tool in clinical practice for improving higher cognitive functions such as information processing. Scope for future research is also given, with it being suggested that training studies will more effectively establish causality in this domain, as video game use has been treated as an individual difference for this study. Likewise, altering the genre of video game play may further influence findings.
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