Neural Correlates of Video Game Based Training to Foster Mindfulness and Prosocial Skills in Adolescents

This project is focused on the neural and behavioral correlates of two different videos games that will be used as training tools. The two video games, developed by the Games Learning Society research group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, are tailored to train mindfulness, particularly the regulation of attention; and prosocial behavior, especially sensitivity to others, in adolescents. This study will evaluate the hypothesis that systematic playing of mindfulness and prosocial games will change brain function in specific attentional, social and emotional circuits in potentially beneficial ways, and will impact performance on cognitive tasks of attention, and on measures of social cue perception and the propensity to share and behave altruistically. The investigators will employ behavioral and functional MRI-based neuroimaging measures to evaluate the investigators hypothesis.