How have your chess skills changed your brain?

Curious about the impact of chess on your brain? This research tries to do just that! In order to proceed, they are actively looking for participants with various levels of chess skills:

• We are looking for a few more (3-4) chess experts who have an ELO above 1800.
• We are also looking for (10-12) people who are not at the expert level in chess. The level we are looking for is that they should know the rules of chess, but do not play monthly (or more). Ideally only plays a few times a year. They should be male, above the age of 35. Maybe there are people who have just started to learn chess at your club who would be interested in participating?

What do you have to do?

Our study consists of an online task (+- 40 minutes) and a scanning session (<2h) which takes place in an fMRI scanner at UZ Gasthuisberg Leuven, during which the participants complete another task.

Both tasks are chess-related, we ask you to evaluate certain chessboard positions. Upon completion of the experiment, participants receive € 70, and we also provide the anatomical scan of your brain to you!

How do you enroll?

Contact Andrea Ivan Costantino through andreaivan.costantino@kuleuven.be. There is no specific end-date, but we are aiming to finalize it in March. So it would be great if they could contact us in the next ~2 weeks so we can schedule sessions.