The Effects of Videogaming with a Brain-Computer Interface on Mood and Physiological Arousal

In recent years, immersive videogame technologies such as virtual reality have been shown to affect psychological welfare in such way that they can be applied to clinical psychology treatments. However, the effects of videogaming with other immersive gaming apparatuses such as commercial electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) on psychological welfare have not been extensively researched. Thus, we aimed at providing early insights into some of these effects by looking at how videogaming with a commercial EEG-based BCI would impact mood and physiological arousal. A total of 26 participants were sampled. Participants were randomly assigned to either a BCI condition or a traditional condition wherein they played an action videogame with a commercial EEG-based BCI or a standard keyboard and mouse interface for 20 minutes. In both conditions, participants filled out the profile of mood states to assess mood and the perceived stress scale to control for stress. We also measured heart rate, heart rate variability as measured by the root mean square of successive differences, and galvanic skin response (GSR) amplitude differences. Participants in the BCI condition overall reported a significantly higher total mood disturbance (P < 0.05), tension (P < 0.05), confusion (P < 0.05), and significantly less vigor (P < 0.05). We also found that participants in the BCI condition had significantly lower GSR amplitude differences between gaming and baseline (P < 0.05). The results suggest that the use of commercial EEG-based BCIs for playing with videogames can induce greater frustration and negative moods than playing with a traditional keyboard and mouse interface, possibly limiting their use in clinical psychology settings.