Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activities of go players and to investigate the neural basis of go.
Enhanced activations were observed in many cortical areas, such as dorsal prefrontal, parietal, occipital, posterior temporal, and primary somatosensory and motor areas. Quantitative analysis indicated a modest degree of stronger activation in right parietal area than in left during go playing.
This type of right hemisphere lateralization during go playing differs from the modest left hemisphere lateralization observed during chess playing: Go players utilize and integrate analytic (left brain) and artistic/pattern recognition (right brain) functions. Chess players utilize almost entirely analytical (left brain) functions.
These contain discussions and bibliographies regarding mental activity in Go