ReviewThe European journal of neuroscience2021
Go with the flow: A neuroscientific view on being fully engaged.
Review in The European journal of neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- The "Feeling" of inattention: ADHD symptoms and mind wandering beyond remembered thought content.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Review
- Mindful Embodied Movement: Study Protocol for a 12-Week Modern Dance-Mindfulness Intervention and Mixed-Methods Randomized Controlled Trial in Recreational Adult Dancers.Methods and protocols · 2026Article
- Autonomic indicators of self-transcendence: insights from the numadelic VR paradigm.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Flow in screen-based gamified virtual reality sports: development and validation of a behaviorally anchored proxy rating scale for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Shielding the Mind With Flow: Attention Allocation and Auditory Event-Related Potentials Under Varying Mental Workload.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Disentangling the effects of task difficulty and effort on flow experience.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Physiological assessment of the psychological flow state using wearable devices.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Practicing Emotional Self-awareness to Build Surgeon Resilience.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2025Article
- Playful brains: a possible neurobiological pathway to cognitive health in aging.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Shifts in task absorption during decision-making episodes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Enhancing stroke rehabilitation with whole-hand haptic rendering: development and clinical usability evaluation of a novel upper-limb rehabilitation device.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- A framework for neurophysiological experiments on flow states.Communications psychology · 2024Review
- Creative therapy in health and disease: Inner vision.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Review
- Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 2: exploratory analyses of complex relationships.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 1: pre-registered hypotheses.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- An efficiently working brain characterizes higher mental flow that elicits pleasure in Chinese calligraphic handwriting.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 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 light side of gaming: creativity and brain plasticity.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Aberrant intrinsic neural network strength in individuals with "smartphone addiction": An MRI data fusion study.Brain and behavior · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Flow is a state of full task absorption, accompanied with a strong drive and low levels of self-referential thinking. Flow is likely when there is a match between a person's skills and the task challenge. Despite its relevance for human performance and the vast body of research on flow, there is currently still relatively little insight in its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. In this paper, we discuss a set of large brain networks that may be involved in establishing the core dimensions of flow. We propose that dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems mediate the intrinsic motivation and activate mood states that are typical for flow. The interaction between three large-scale attentional networks, namely the Default Mode Network, Central Executive Network and the Salience Network is proposed to play a role in the strong task engagement, low self-referential thinking, feedback and feelings of control in flow. The proposed relationships between flow and the brain networks may support the generation of new hypotheses and can guide future research in this field.
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Registered trials
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.