Performance Of The Tower Of Hanoi And Its Relationship To The Prefrontal Cortex Activity
| Author(s) | Kim, Andrew | |
| Date Accessioned | 2016-09-19T16:30:10Z | |
| Date Available | 2016-09-19T16:30:10Z | |
| Publication Date | 2016-05 | |
| Abstract | The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the area in front of the brain that makes humans cognitively aware of the environment. The PFC is responsible for vital aspects of cognition such as decision-making, attention, and most importantly executive function. Executive function relates abilities to differentiate thought processes, imagine future consequences of goals, work towards a concrete goal through strategy and several more cognitive aspects of conscientious thought. Through executive function, producing a movement goal creates motor planning. Motor planning is the process related to preparation prior to the movement itself. Levels of activity in the PFC can be monitored through brain imaging equipment such as the functional nearinfrared spectroscopy (fNIRs). FNIRs is a non-invasive brain imaging technique where sensors emit light from a headband placed on a participants forehead. This technique measures the amount of infrared light that reflects from the PFC and through that researchers can convert that infrared light reading into oxygenatedhemoglobin (oxy-hb) levels of the brain. Having higher oxy-hb levels equate to a higher level of cerebral blood flow in the brain. Oxy-hb levels were compared between two different states: manual and computerized Tower of Hanoi (ToH). ToH is a cognitive planning game where a participant has to place different size discs together on multiple discs. The purpose of this study is to see if there are differences in oxy-hb between the manual and computerized ToH. Nine participants between the ages of 18- 24 completed 20 trials of ToH, ten being manual and ten being computerized. All while being monitored by the fNIRS system. Results showed that eight out of the nine participants had relatively higher oxy-hb in the manual version of the ToH. This indicates that manual ToH results in a higher level of executive function which than results in a higher level of motor planning over the computerized ToH. Future studies hope to employ this study to expand knowledge about disorders with executive function deficits such as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). | en_US |
| Advisor | Nancy Getchell | |
| Program | Exercise Science | |
| URL | http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/19606 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| Keywords | tower of hanoi | en_US |
| Keywords | prefrontal cortex | en_US |
| Keywords | exercise science | en_US |
| Title | Performance Of The Tower Of Hanoi And Its Relationship To The Prefrontal Cortex Activity | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |