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Abstract
Background: Flow states are considered a positive, subjective experience during an optimal balance between skills and task demands. Previously, experimentally induced flow experiences have relied solely on adaptive tasks.Objective: To investigate whether cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) area and anodal tDCS over the right parietal cortex area during video game play will promote an increased experience of flow states.Methods: Two studies had participants play Tetris or first-person shooter (FPS) video games while receiving either real tDCS or sham stimulation. Tetris recruited 21 untrained players who infrequently played video games while the 11 FPS participants played FPS frequently. Flow experience was assessed before and after stimulation.Results: Compared to sham stimulation, real stimulation increased flow experience for both untrained Tetris and trained FPS players. Improved performance effects were only seen with untrained groups.Conclusion: Cathodal and anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC and right parietal areas, respectively may encourage flow experiences in complex real-life motor tasks that occur during sports, games, and everyday life.
Highlights
Flow, or optimal experience is a “holistic response” which results from a harmony found between all the states of consciousness and the individuals’ skills matching their goals (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
An overall positive effect was observed for all participants from both experiments, in which participants from both experiments resulted in a significantly higher experience of flow states after Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) compared to sham or control conditions
Experiment 1 hypothesized that tDCS would modulate the experience of flow states for trained players of first-person shooter videogames
Summary
Optimal experience is a “holistic response” which results from a harmony found between all the states of consciousness and the individuals’ skills matching their goals (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). One of the leading neurocognitive theoretical models of flow purported by Dietrich (2004) denotes a state of transient hypofrontality, which enlists the full support of the implicit system to execute a task at optimal output (maximum skill/maximum efficiency) while the majority of the online executive function of the prefrontal cortices are inhibited (Dietrich, 2004, 2006). Flow states are considered a positive, subjective experience during an optimal balance between skills and task demands. Experimentally induced flow experiences have relied solely on adaptive tasks
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