QEEG-based neural correlates of decision making in a well-trained eight year-old chess player.

The neurocognitive substrates of decision making in the context of chess has appealed to the interest of investigators for decades. Expert and beginner chess players are hypothesized to employ different functional brain networks when involved in episodes of critical decision making while playing chess. Cognitive capacities including, but not restricted to, pattern recognition, visuospatial search, reasoning, planning, and decision making are perhaps the key determinants of the reward and judgment decisions made during chess games. Meanwhile, the precise neural correlates of decision making in this context has largely remained elusive. Quantitative electroencephalography is an investigative tool possessing an appropriate temporal resolution for the study of the neural correlates of cognitive tasks at a cortical level. A 22-channel electroencephalography setup and digital polygraphy were employed in the investigation of a well-trained eight-year old boy while engaged in playing chess against a computer. Quantitative analyses mapped and source-localized electroencephalography signals. Analyses indicated a lower power spectral density for higher frequency bands in the right hemisphere during decision making related epochs. Moreover, in the given subject, the information flow of decision making blocks tended to move from posterior towards anterior brain regions.