Using fNIRS to Assess Cognitive Activity During Gameplay

This work explores the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess cognitive activity during videogame play, and compare it to cognitive activity during cognitive tasks that assess executive control. To this end, we assessed haemodynamic response to videogame and cognitive tasks in the prefrontal cortex, each manipulated on a spectrum of difficulty. In our study (n = 37), we find that mental effort expended during videogame play did not differ from mental effort expended during cognitive tasks---and speculate that regional cognitive activity during gameplay is indicative of functions pertaining to memory encoding and retrieval, planning, and sustainment of attention. Our findings suggest the utility of fNIRS as a means to understand challenge as part of the player experience, and contest the popular conception of videogame play as cognitively undemanding entertainment. Further, we were successful in distinguishing between difficulty levels in the gameplay tasks, situating fNIRS as broadly useful for granular assessment of gameplay difficulty. As such, we contend that fNIRS is an effective and useful tool for generating high-resolution insights regarding cognition (and particularly the experience of difficulty) during gameplay.