Peripheral-physiological and neural correlates of the flow experience while playing video games: a comprehensive review

PeerJ

article

Shiva Khoshnoud¹  Federico Alvarez Igarzábal¹  Marc Wittmann¹ 

[1] Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health

关键词: Flow;    Neurophysiology;    Video games;    Arousal;    Attention;    Self-referential processing;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.10520

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The flow state is defined by intense involvement in an activity with high degrees of concentration and focused attention accompanied by a sense of pleasure. Video games are effective tools for inducing flow, and keeping players in this state is considered to be one of the central goals of game design. Many studies have focused on the underlying physiological and neural mechanisms of flow. Results are inconsistent when describing a unified mechanism underlying this mental state. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the physiological and neural correlates of flow and explains the relationship between the reported physiological and neural markers of the flow experience. Despite the heterogeneous results, it seems possible to establish associations between reported markers and the cognitive and experiential aspects of flow, particularly regarding arousal, attention control, reward processing, automaticity, and self-referential processing.

【 授权许可】

CC BY