Identifying the Neural Mechanism Behind Team Flow

Post by Lincoln Tracy

The takeaway

People can get “in the zone” when playing sports, listening to music, or working — either alone or as part of a team or group. Now, researchers have identified the neural mechanism responsible for getting “in the zone” during a team-based activity.

What's the science?

“Getting in the zone”—or entering a flow state—is a psychological phenomenon characterized by intense attention and effortless reflexes, leading to a reduced sense of external awareness and a reduced sense of time. Developing a flow state can occur during individual or team-based activities, with previous research reporting the flow state from team-based activities as being more intense than individual flow states. However, the neural mechanism underlying team-based flow states is unknown. This week in eNeuro, Shehata and colleagues propose a model of these mechanisms by investigating the neural activity of partners in a team-based activity.

How did they do it?

Researchers recruited 15 participants (five males, 18-35 years) to form 10 sets of pairs—meaning some participants were paired twice. Participants played the music rhythm game “O2JAM U”, an iPad game in the same vein as Guitar Hero, under three different conditions designed to manipulate how easy it would be for participants to get “in the zone” while playing as a team. During the Team Flow condition participants played a particular song while they could see their partner and the area on the screen they had to tap to “play” the song. The Team Only condition had the same setup, but participants played a reversed and shuffled version of the song. Finally, the Flow Only condition played the same song as the Team Flow condition, but participants could see neither their partner nor the tapping area. Irrelevant beeping sounds were played throughout the songs in all conditions to test how much attention participants were paying to the game. Researchers specifically recruited people who were good at the game (i.e., they missed less than 10 cues during a song with nearly 300 cues during a practice round) and preferred playing the game with someone else, rather than by themselves.

Flow state—or how much participants felt they were “in the zone”—during the task was measured in two ways. The first was by a series of ratings that participants completed after each trial (feeling in control, enjoyment, time perception, etc.). The second was via electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning—where brain activity from both participants was recorded at the same time. The researchers were specifically interested in the auditory-evoked potentiations (AEP), or the brain activity that occurred in response to the irrelevant beeps played during the tasks. The more brain activity in response to the beeps, the less “in the zone” the participant was. The researchers looked at the EEG data for participants individually, as well as looking at if the level and timing of brain activity were similar between the two participants in each of the pairs.

What did they find?

First, the authors found that the AEP response was greater during the Team Only condition compared to the Team Flow and Flow Only conditions, meaning that participants were less engaged in the task during that condition. Second, they found that the AEP displayed the strongest correlation with the participant’s flow ratings during the Team Flow condition. This suggests participants were more in the zone during the Team Flow condition. Third, the authors found the beta-gamma EEG band (brain waves) had the highest power when participants were in team flow, meaning the neural signature for team flow had been identified. Finally, they found that the Team Flow condition was associated with higher interbrain neural synchrony. This means that both individuals displayed higher levels of similar brain activity when completing the task—consistent with the phenomenological experience of team flow. 

What's the impact?

This is the first study to identify an objective neural measure of team flow. These results provide a proof of concept that team flow is a distinct brain state from solo or individual flow states. The novel method used in this study will be a useful tool for future research in this area.

Shehata et al. Team flow is a unique brain state associated with enhanced information integration and inter-brain synchrony. eNeuro (2021). Access the original scientific publication here.