Preliminary Study of Arousal Control Method Using Biofeedback Games

Abstract

It has been suggested that there is a relationship between arousal level and work performance in various daily life situations. Prior research has identified an inverse U-shaped relationship between physiological arousal and work performance, demonstrating that both excessive decrease and excessive increase in arousal can lead to diminished work efficiency. In this study, we applied the EEG index as the arousal level. A hypothesis was proposed that the capability to naturally regulate arousal at an intermediate level can be enhanced through training with a biofeedback game (BFG). To evaluate the arousal regulation ability, we also developed a visual biofeedback (VBF) system to verify the arousal regulation ability before and after the BFG training. The results indicated that after playing the proposed BFG, the arousal of participants maintained closer to the intermediate level, showing that the proposed game was able to improve the ability to regulate arousal.