A Transcranial Stimulation Intervention to Support Flow State Induction

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.

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

“…In tasks which require sustained attention, a deactivation of prefrontal areas seems unlikely. Gold & Ciorciari (2019) investigated whether decreased excitability over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and increased excitability in the right parietal cortex during gameplay promotes an increased experience of flow as measured by the FSS questionnaire. Transcranial, direct-current stimulation (tDCS), which is a non-invasive, electrical-stimulation technique that modulates the activation of the cortical neurons under a probe electrode, was used to alter the excitability of the cortex.…”

A Review on the Role of the Neuroscience of Flow States in the Modern World

“…This was uniquely for people specifically experiencing low flow in which more research is needed for the general population. A tDCS study by Gold & Ciorciari [139] explored flow for novice gamers who typically didn't find during videogames and expert video gamers who did. The tDCS set up focused on an anodal right parietal and cathodal left frontal stimulation that also showed support for flow state induction, this time in alignment with a deactivation of MPFC associated with high flow states.…”

Peer Review #1 of "Peripheral-physiological and neural correlates of the flow experience while playing video games: a comprehensive review (v0.2)"

“…Inhibition of the explicit system and the transient hypofrontality theory (Dietrich, 2004) received partial empirical support from studies on the neural mechanisms underlying the experience of flow (Gold & Ciorciari, 2019;Ulrich et al, 2016Ulrich et al, , 2014. Other studies failed to find transient hypofrontality during the state of flow (Harmat et al, 2015;Yoshida et al, 2014).…”