Abstract
Karuta is a traditional Japanese card game, in which the players compete with their opponents to find the cards with the latter half of the 'Tanka,' which the reader reads out aloud. Players need excellent memory and quick movement for getting a card. We recorded the event-related potential P300 and near-infrared optical topography of Karuta players during an auditory oddball task which is similar to Karuta, in an attempt to investigate the information processing in the brain of Karuta players. The subjects were 27 university students who were Karuta players, and the control group consisted of 12 university students who were not Karuta players. We used Neuropack μ(Nihon Koden) to record the event-related potential and ETG-100 (Hitachi Medico) to measure the cerebral blood volume. The followings were observed in Karuta players. (1)The response time of the event-related potential was shorter than the latency of P300. (2)P300 appeared 300msec after the target stimuli. (3)A large positive wave was also observed 300msec after non-target stimuli. (4)Cerebral blood volume was markedly increased on both sides in the beginner of Karuta players. In middle-level players, the cerebral blood flow on the left side was slightly reduced, although that on the right side remained high. In the expert players, the cerebral blood flow on both sides was significantly. In conclusion, Karuta training may increase the active memory area and may cause cerebral blood volume changes. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S167]
