Mapping attention during gameplay: Assessment of behavioral and ERP markers in an auditory oddball task.

Video games are enjoyed most when the level and speed of the game match the players' skills. An optimal balance between challenges and skills triggers the subjective experience of "flow," a focused motivation leading to a feeling of spontaneous joy. The present research investigates the behavioral and neural correlates of a paradigm aimed to assess the players' subjective experience during gameplay. Attentional engagement changes were assessed first at the behavioral level and in a second stage by means of EEG recordings. An auditory novelty oddball paradigm was implemented as a secondary task while subjects played in three conditions: boredom, frustration, and flow. We found higher reaction times and error rates in the flow condition. In a second stage, EEG time domain analysis revealed a significantly delayed response-locked frontocentral negative deflection during flow, likely signaling the reallocation of attentional resources. Source reconstruction analyses showed that the brain regions responsible for the genesis of this negativity were located within the medial frontal cortex. Frequency domain analyses showed a significant power increase only in the alpha band for the flow condition. Our results showed that this alpha power enhancement was correlated with faster reaction times. This suggests that frontal alpha changes recorded as maximal at the midfrontal lines during flow might be related to inhibitory top-down cognitive control processes.

Changing your mind before it is too late: the electrophysiological correlates of online error correction during response selection.

Inhibiting actions when they are no longer appropriate is essential for adaptive goal-directed behavior. In this study, we used high-density EEG and a standard flanker task to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of cognitive control and inhibitory mechanisms aimed to prevent the commission of errors. By recording hand-related electromyographic activity, we could disentangle successful from unsuccessful inhibition attempts. Our results confirm that (a) the latency of the error-related negativity (ERN; or Ne) component is too late to be associated with these online inhibitory mechanisms, and (b) instead, a frontal slow negative component with an earlier time course was associated with the implementation of online inhibition. These findings are consistent with single-cell recordings in monkeys showing that the supplementary motor area provides cognitive control signals to the primary motor cortex to exert online inhibition and in turn rectify the course of erroneous actions.

Challenging the other: exploring the role of opponent gender in digital game competition for female players.

Abstract The present study investigated the effect of opponent gender on the game experience of female players. Concretely, it looked into skill perception and player emotions of women in same gender and cross-gender game competition. We set up a 2×2×2 (male vs. female opponent×low vs. high competitive women×lost vs. won game) experimental design in which women were instructed to play against a proclaimed male and female competitor. Unknowingly, however, participants played against an AI, which was configured to produce a winning and a losing condition for each opponent by manipulating difficulty. Results indicated that opponent gender only had an effect on perceived stress, which was higher with male opponents. Moreover, players evaluated their own gaming skills as lower and the skills of presumed male opponents as higher when they thought they were playing against men. Importantly, our results also showed that the above described pattern for self-perceived skills and perceived opponent skills was modulated by trait competitiveness with a larger effect size for low competitive women. Overall, this study illustrates that gender dynamics affect the play experience of women in cross-gender gaming competition. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Reward expectation and prediction error in human medial frontal cortex: an EEG study.

The mammalian medial frontal cortex (MFC) is involved in reward-based decision making. In particular, in nonhuman primates this area constructs expectations about upcoming rewards, given an environmental state or a choice planned by the animal. At the same time, in both humans and nonhuman primates, the MFC computes the difference between such predictions and actual environmental outcomes (reward prediction errors). However, there is a paucity of evidence about the time course of MFC-related activity during reward prediction and prediction error in humans. Here we experimentally investigated this by recording the EEG during a reinforcement learning task. Our results support the hypothesis that human MFC codes for reward prediction during the cue period and for prediction error during the outcome period. Further, reward expectation (cue period) was positively correlated with prediction error (outcome period) in error trials but negatively in correct trials, consistent with updating of reward expectation by prediction error. This demonstrates in humans, like in nonhuman primates, a role of the MFC in the rapid updating of reward expectations through prediction errors.

Increased orienting to unexpected action outcomes in schizophrenia.

Although some recent research has indicated reduced performance monitoring in patients with schizophrenia, the literature on this topic shows some remarkable inconsistencies. While most studies suggest diminished error signals following error responses, some studies reported normal post-error slowing, while others reported reduced post-error slowing. Here we review these studies and highlight the most important discrepancies. Furthermore, we argue that overall error rates are a mostly neglected issue that can at least partly explain these discrepancies. It has been reported previously that post-error slowing depends on the error rates. Participants or patients that make more errors are likely to show decreased post-error slowing. Therefore, when a group of patients is compared to a group of controls, it is extremely important to match error rates. For this purpose, we developed a procedure where we matched individuals' error rates. In a task where subjects had to press a response key corresponding to one of four colors we manipulated the difficulty on an individual basis by varying the discriminability between the colors. Schizophrenic patients and a group of controls were tested with this procedure showing that differences in accuracy disappear. Interestingly, we can see that in patients, the color values that were needed to reach similar levels of accuracy correlate with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scale, with higher PANSS requiring more color. Most important, we found that schizophrenic patients have increased rather than decreased post-error slowing when the inter-trial interval (ITI) is short. This result can be interpreted within the framework of the orienting account, as it has been demonstrated previously that schizophrenic patients show increased distractibility.

How monitoring other's actions influences one's own performance.

Monitoring of one's own and other's performance during social interactions is crucial to efficiently adapt our behavior and to optimize task performance. In the present study we investigated to what extent social factors can modulate behavioral adjustments in performance. For this purpose, participants executed a flanker task and alternated either with a computer program or with a human partner in cooperative and competitive contexts. Modulations in reaction times (RTs) (post-error slowing) and error rates (post-error accuracy) after error observation were analyzed. The results revealed that these behavioral measures were differently affected by the social manipulations. Post-error slowing was modulated by the social context (cooperation vs. competition), while post-error accuracy was sensitive to the nature of the agent involved in the interaction (human vs. computer). The present findings provide evidence that behavioral adaptations in RTs and accuracy following error observation dissociate and are sensitive to different features of the social situation.

Outcome expectancy and not accuracy determines posterror slowing: ERP support.

A considerable number of studies have recently used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the mechanisms underlying error processing. Nevertheless, how these mechanisms are associated with behavioral adjustments following errors remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated how posterror slowing is linked to outcome expectations and error feedback. We used an adaptive four-choice reaction time task to manipulate outcome expectancy. Behaviorally, the results show posterror slowing when errors are unexpected and post-correct slowing when correct responses are unexpected, indicating that outcome expectancy is crucial for post-error slowing. ERP analyses revealed that the error-related negativity and the feedback-related negativity were not correlated with the behavioral reaction time pattern, whereas the P3 was. The results support the hypothesis that posterror slowing is caused by attentional orienting to unexpected events.