Concentration and immersion belong to a similar mental state in which a person is preoccupied with a particular task. In this study, we investigated a possibility of diagnosing two mental states with a subtle difference. Concentration and immersion states were induced to analyze the electroencephalography (EEG) changes during these states. Thirty-two college students in their 20s participated in the study. For concentration, subjects were asked to focus on a red dot at the center of a white screen, and for immersion they were asked to focus on playing a computer game. Relative to rest, Alpha waves decreased during concentration and immersion. Relative to rest, Theta waves decreased at almost all channels during concentration and, on the other hand, increased at all channels during immersion. Beta waves increased during concentration and immersion in the frontal and occipital lobes, with a higher increase in immersion. In the temporal lobe, Beta waves decreased during concentration and increased during immersion. In the central region, Beta waves decreased during concentration and immersion, and the decrease during immersion was larger. Such evident differences between the EEG results for concentration and immersion can imply diagnostic capabilities of various other mental states.

The number of computer game users is increasing as computers and various IT devices in connection with the Internet are commonplace in all ages. In this research, in order to find the relevance of behavioral activity and its associated biosignal, biosignal changes before and after as well as during computer games were measured and analyzed for 31 subjects. For this purpose, a device to measure electrocardiogram, photoplethysmogram and skin temperature was developed such that the effect of motion artifacts could be minimized. The device was made wearable for convenient measurement. The game selected for the experiments was League of Legends™. Analysis on the pulse transit time, heart rate variability and skin temperature showed increased sympathetic nerve activities during computer game, while the parasympathetic nerves became less active. Interestingly, the sympathetic predominance group showed less change in the heart rate variability as compared to the normal group. The results can be valuable for studying internet gaming disorder.