Table 3. Studies on neural correlates of the flow state: neural oscillation investigations.
| Ref. | N subjects |
Age mean/ range |
Sample | Experiment type | Design | Measure | Neural correlates of flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kramer (2007) | 10 (5f) | 18–24 | Healthy students | Driving game | Playing trials | EDA, EEG | Greater left temporal alpha predicted performance level |
| Chanel et al. (2011) | 20(7f) | 27 | Healthy subjects | Tetris game | 5 min Under-challenged, Flow, Over-challenged | EDA, BP, Res, T, EEG | Distinct theta & beta power between conditions |
| Nacke, Stellmach & Lindley (2011) | 25(m) | 19–38 | Healthy students | FPS game: Half-Life 2 | 10 min Under-challenged, Immersion, Flow |
EEG | Higher theta & delta power in the immersion condition |
| Berta et al. (2013) | 22 (5f) | 26.3 | Healthy students | Plane battle game | 4 min Under-challenged, Flow, Over-challenged |
EEG | Lowest mean alpha & low-beta in the flow condition |
| Wang & Hsu (2014) | 20(10f) | 19–27 | Healthy students | Computer-based instruction | 7-9 min Under-challenged, Flow, Over-challenged | EEG | EEG attention value was correlated with overall flow and flow dimensions |
| De Kock (2014) | 20(m) | 16–45 | Healthy subjects | Car racing game: Need for Speed –Carbon | Low flow- performance, High flow- performance |
EEG | Increased low-beta power in the sensorimotor; low-beta synchronization between all cortical connections for high-flow group |
| Léger et al. (2014) | 36 | – | Healthy students | Enterprise Resource Planning software | Under-challenged, Flow, Over-challenged | ECG, EDA, EEG | Higher alpha & lower beta in the flow condition |
| Wolf et al. (2015) | 35 (9f) | <36 | Table- tennis players | Motor imagery paradigm | 7 s video clips | EEG | Positive correlation between T4-T3 alpha asymmetry & flow score in the experts |
| Metin et al. (2017) | 20(7f) | 20–35 | Healthy subjects | Ping-pong game | 2 min Under-challenged, Flow | EEG | Greater theta & delta power in the flow condition |
| Katahira et al. (2018) | 16(6f) | 21.9 | Healthy students | Mental arithmetic task | 184 s Under-challenged, Flow, Over-challenged | EEG | Increased theta activity in the frontal areas, moderate alpha activities in the frontal & central areas in the flow condition |
| Moreno et al. (2020) | 1 | 27 | Expert gamer | Portal game | 45 min gameplay | EDA , EEG | Increased beta activity during moments of goal attainment |
Notes.
- ECG
- electrocardiography
- EEG
- electroencephalography
- EDA
- electrodermal activity
- Res
- respiration
- BP
- blood pressure
- T
- temperature
- SD
- standard deviation
- m
- male
- f
- female