The psychophysiology of flow during piano playing.

Abstract

Expert performance is commonly accompanied by a subjective state of optimal experience called flow. Previous research has shown positive correlations between flow and quality of performance and suggests that flow may function as a reward signal that promotes practice. Here, piano playing was used as a flow-inducing behavior in order to analyze the relationship between subjective flow reports and psychophysiological measures. Professional classical pianists were asked to play a musical piece and then rate state flow. The performance was repeated five times in order to induce a variation in flow, keeping other factors constant, while recording the arterial pulse pressure waveform, respiration, head movements, and activity from the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major facial muscles. A significant relation was found between flow and heart period, blood pressure, heart rate variability, activity of the zygomaticus major muscle, and respiratory depth. These findings are discussed in relation to current models of emotion, attention, and expertise, and flow is proposed to be a state of effortless attention, which arises through an interaction between positive affect and high attention.

Mental and perceptual feedback in the development of creative flow

“…Interestingly, sketching facilitated flow but did not impact on affect change, which has been previously shown to have strong ties to flow in Cseh et al (2015), and which was a repeated finding in this study. Flow has both cognitive and emotional aspects to it, though the distinction and relationships between these categories of components can be unclear (de Manzano, Theorell, Harmat, & Ullén, 2010). This lack of an impact of sketching on affect, while still influencing flow, signals that sketching influences the specifically cognitive components of flow while leaving affective variables -as well as factors influencing both objective and self-perceptions about creative skill -unaffected.…”

Music practice and participation for psychological well-being: A review of how music influences positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment

“…In other words, in order for a highly practiced musical skill like improvised saxophone performance to become represented in the implicit system of a musical agent's knowledge base, and thus capable of being implemented by a musical agent without interference from their explicit system during occasions of flow experience, a sufficient amount of musical skill must first be acquired by that musical agent through a substantive (though not excessive) amount of deliberate musical practice and the accumulation of the relevant sensory-motor integration that it results in (see also Croom, 2012bCroom, , pp. 98-101, 2014De Manzano, Theorell, Harmat, & Ullen, 2010;Dietrich, 2004;Ericsson et al, 1993). Indeed, Strati et al (2011) have suggested that "flow experiences are valuable for learning and development because they provide an orientation of engagement and skill-building that carries into the future," and that "because flow states are enjoyable, they motivate individuals to continue developing skills and raising challenges to reenter flow" (p. 1058).…”

“…Hymer (1984) accordingly proposed that patients "can use absorptive experiences as means to allay anxiety by temporarily curtailing self-absorptive obsessive thinking through immersion in objects outside the self such as music" (p. 102). In "The Psychophysiology of Flow During Piano Playing, " De Manzano et al (2010) further investigated the relationship between subjective flow reports and psychophysiological measures in participants (n = 21) experienced in piano playing, and reported finding that flow 8 Musicae Scientiae experience "arises through an interaction between positive affect and high attention" (p. 301) and that "flow measures show increased flow to be related to decreased HP [heart period] and RSA [respiratory sinus arrhythmia], increased LF/HF ratio, total power, and RD [respiratory depth]" which "suggests that during a physically and cognitively demanding task, an increased activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system in combination with deep breathing and activation of the ZM [zygomaticus major] might potentially be used as an indicator of effortless attention and flow" (p. 306; cf. Peifer, 2012, p. 142).…”

Live long and propser : Health-promoting conditions at work

“…Individuals who frequently experience flow at work have more energy, and feel more vigorous and less exhausted after work (Rodríguez-Sanchez, Schaufeli, Salanova, Cifre & Sonnenschein, 2011;Demerouti et al, 2012;Zito, Cortese & Colombo, 2015). Students who experience flow have been found to report higher mental as well as physical well-being (Eisenberger et al, 2005;Fullagar & Kelloway, 2009;Steele & Fullagar, 2009), and the peak experience of flow has also been found to correlate with physiological expressions (muscle activity, heart rate and respiration) of positive emotions (de Manzano, Theorell, Harmat & Ullén, 2010). This indicates that work-related flow is likely to have beneficial effects over time, both within and outside the work context.…”