The Acagamic

Using bio­met­rics for psy­chophys­i­o­log­i­cal eval­u­a­tion is becom­ing a pop­u­lar approach in game user research. While results of this work can look stun­ning, exper­i­men­tal con­trol is impor­tant if you want to inter­pret your data in a way that is robust.

A neu­ro­bi­o­log­i­cal under­stand­ing of games has at its core the dopamin­er­gic reward sys­tem [cite]10.1145/1920778.1920780[/cite]. The the nucleus accum­bens, which is also dubbed the plea­sure cen­ter of the brain, is cur­rently under­stood as the crit­i­cal brain region asso­ci­ated with the neu­ro­trans­mit­ter dopamine, which in turn is impli­cated in habit for­ma­tion, reward-seeking behav­iors and addic­tion. The above [...]