Brain and peripheral correlates of decision making in rapid chess

FERNÁNDEZ SLEZAK, DIEGO; PETRONI, AGUSTÍN; SIGMAN, MARIANO

Córdoba

Congreso; II Reunión Conjunta de Neurociencias; 2010

SAN

Rapid chess is an ideal framework to study human decision making in a controlled environment. The proliferation of chess servers on the Internet has turned active chess, blitz and lightning, into a vast cognitive phenomenon involving engaged participants. In a previous work, we generated a database of response times and estimated position values (score) downloading millions of games from Free Internet Chess Server (FICS, www.freechess.org). Scores were estimated using Stockfish Engine (www.stockfishchess.com). We found that RTs were not stationary and can not be generated by a state functio which had theoretical implications since they deny two basic assumptions of sequential decision making algorithms. Here we present a novel experimental set-up to study brain correlates of chess decision making in chess players. Robust behavioral markers obtained from FICS database are used as markers for brain and peripheral physiolgogical responses during rapid chess games. Using verbal reports of introspection after the game (e.g. blunder occurrence, creativity, difficulty), we will explore the association between these conscious reports and event related brain potentials, heart rate, pupil size and blood flow.