ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2016
Neural signatures of experimentally induced flow experiences identified in a typical fMRI block design with BOLD imaging.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Enhanced functional connectivity between the default mode network and executive control network during flow states may facilitate creativity and emotional regulation, and may improve health outcomes.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Flow Experience: An EEG Microstate Analysis.Brain topography · 2026Article
- Boredom in Psychiatric Disorders: Another Dimensional Construct?Brain and behavior · 2026Review
- Tracking Flow in Real Time: Continuous Measurement of Game-Induced Flow in Virtual Reality.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Strange attractors: purpose, synchronicity, flow, and the neurodynamics of meaning.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Review
- Flow as the mediating mechanism in marathon events: connecting event quality, motivation, and self-efficacy to perceived value and performance.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- The Impact of Flow on University EFL Learners' Psychological Capital: Insights from Positive Psychology.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Investigation of flow state occurrence during robotic virtual reality operations.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Shielding the Mind With Flow: Attention Allocation and Auditory Event-Related Potentials Under Varying Mental Workload.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Physiological assessment of the psychological flow state using wearable devices.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Flow-Induced Analgesia: A Conceptual Review of Biopsychosocial and Neurobiological Mechanisms of Pain Modulation.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- A video-game-based method to induce states of high and low flow.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Forgetting ourselves in flow: an active inference account of flow states and how we experience ourselves within them.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- An efficiently working brain characterizes higher mental flow that elicits pleasure in Chinese calligraphic handwriting.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023Article
- Response outcome gates the effect of spontaneous cortical state fluctuations on perceptual decisions.eLife · 2023Article
- Changes in pupil dilation and P300 amplitude indicate the possible involvement of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in psychological flow.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The neural signatures of the psychological construct "flow": A replication study.Neuroimage. Reports · 2022Article
- Theta Neurofeedback Training Supports Motor Performance and Flow Experience.Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice · 2022Article
- A Scoping Review of Flow Research.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Brain-Heart Interaction and the Experience of Flow While Playing a Video Game.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previously, experimentally induced flow experiences have been demonstrated with perfusion imaging during activation blocks of 3 min length to accommodate with the putatively slowly evolving "mood" characteristics of flow. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of 23 healthy, male participants to investigate flow in the context of a typical fMRI block design with block lengths as short as 30 s. To induce flow, demands of arithmetic tasks were automatically and continuously adjusted to the individual skill level. Compared against conditions of boredom and overload, experience of flow was evident from individuals' reported subjective experiences and changes in electrodermal activity. Neural activation was relatively increased during flow, particularly in the anterior insula, inferior frontal gyri, basal ganglia and midbrain. Relative activation decreases during flow were observed in medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex, and in the medial temporal lobe including the amygdala. Present findings suggest that even in the context of comparably short activation blocks flow can be reliably experienced and is associated with changes in neural activation of brain regions previously described. Possible mechanisms of interacting brain regions are outlined, awaiting further investigation which should now be possible given the greater temporal resolution compared with previous perfusion imaging.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.