THE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF FLOW

The study aims to explore the spectral properties of flow and antiflow states. 20 young male participants played a collision-avoidance computer-game while their spectral EEG activity have been measured. Flow, boredom, and anxiety conditions were differentiated with the help of personal adjustment of the game speeds. Personal baseline values were obtained with an objective and a subjective preliminary skill measurement on the same computer-game. The spectral activities of the subjects through the three conditions showed that generally under the flow condition the activity is lower than in the anxiety condition, but higher than in the boredom condition regarding delta, theta, beta, and gamma spectra. More importantly the temporal dynamics shows, that initially in flow and anxiety conditions an ascending activity can be observed, whereas after a climax in the activity graph a strong decline appears in the flow condition (beta and gamma), while this is weakly or not at all present in the anxiety condition, and an increase appears in the boredom condition. Our results support the hypofrontality hypothesis of flow and points out the importance of measuring flow in its temporal dynamics. The behavioural data does not support the idea of flow as a mechanism for effectance-optimalisation, but rather as a mechanism for optimalising for the maximalisation of gaining information and/or experience.