Optimal performance is commonly accompanied by a subjective state of experience called flow. Previous research has shown positive correlations between flow and quality of performance and suggests that flow may function as a reward signal that promotes practice.

We have subsequently found that flow in music is one of the best predictors for the number of creative achievements of professional musicians. Thus, this somewhat “fluffy”-sounding concept has very real and important implications that warrants further research. Projects in this research theme are aimed at studying variations in state flow in relation to psychological and environmental factors, and further map these onto neural mechanisms.

In this project we study flow experiences in professional musicians and how they relate to brain activity, as measured with EEG. There is still not much previous research on the neural underpinnings of flow experiences, and many questions remain unanswered, particularly with regard to the generalizability of neural correlates. The goal here is to study what is domain specific and domain general about flow states.

The Psychophysiology of Flow During Piano Playing
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018432

Physiological correlates of the flow experience during computer game playing
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.05.001

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