Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

EEG Assessment of Surprise Effects in Serious Games

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Games and Learning Alliance (GALA 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9599))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This study examines an innovative approach for evaluating surprise effects in a serious game. In this game, players were exposed to surprising situations that challenged their level of performance which eventually should help them to acquire crucial mental readiness when real crisis situations emerge. During exposure to surprises, measurements were taken online from players’ left prefrontal cortex, using an electroencephalogram (EEG) device. Two groups of participants were compared at three common surprising events (SEs) during the game, with only one group being exposed to seven preceding SEs. First, mean amplitude power (MAP) values in Delta band were indeed significantly lower during exposure to SEs compared to their baseline pre-game status which points to a more wakeful state. Secondly, comparing MAP values in the Alpha band showed a significant difference as was expected, with the group with preceding surprises having higher MAPs, indicating less cortical activation which is interpreted as being more relaxed and conscious.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Murugappan, M., Ramachandran, N., Sazali, Y.: Classification of human emotion from EEG using discrete wavelet transform. J. Biomed. Sci. Eng. 3, 390–396 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hondrou, C., Caridakis, G.: Affective, natural interaction using EEG: sensors, application and future directions. In: Maglogiannis, I., Plagianakos, V., Vlahavas, I. (eds.) SETN 2012. LNCS, vol. 7297, pp. 331–338. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Emotiv EPOC 3D Brain Activity Map Premium Version. User Manual V1.0. Emotiv Inc. (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Dressler, O.: Awareness and the EEG power spectrum: analysis of frequency. Br. J. Anesth. 93(6), 806–809 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Amzica, F., Da Silva, F.L.: Celluluar substrates of brain rhythms. In: Schomer, D.L., da Silva, F.L. (eds.) Niedermeyer’s Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields, vol. 6, pp. 33–63. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Arroyo, S., Lesser, R.P., Gordon, B., Uematsu, S., Jackson, D., Webber, R.: Functional significance of the mu rhythm of human cortex: an electrophysiologic study with subdural electrodes. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol. 87(3), 76–87 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. NeuroSky: Brain Wave Signal (EEG). NeuroSky, Inc. (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hammond, D.C.: What is neurofeedback? J. Neurother. 10(4), 25 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Benca, R.M., Obermeyer, W.H., Larson, C.L., Yun, B., Dolski, I., Kleist, K.D., Weber, S.M., Davidson, R.J.: EEG alpha power and alpha power asymmetry in sleep and wakefulness. Psychophysiology 36, 430–436 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Brodmann, K.: Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde (in German). Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig (1909)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Davidson, R.J., Schwartz, G.E., Saron, C., Bennett, J., Goleman, D.J.: Frontal versus parietal EEG asymmetry during positive and negative affect. Psychophysiology 16, 202–203 (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dawson, G.: Frontal electroencephalographic correlates of individual differences in emotional expression in infants. In: Fox, N.A., (ed.) The Development of Emotion Regulation: Behavioral and Biological Considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, vol. 59(2–3), Serial No. 240, pp. 135–151 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Schmidt, L.A.: Frontal brain electrical activity in shyness and sociability. Psychol. Sci. 10, 316–320 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Schmidt, L.A., Fox, N.A.: Conceptual, biological, and behavioral distinctions among different types of shy children. In: Schmidt, L.A., Schulkin, J. (eds.) Extreme Fear, Shyness and Social Phobia: Origins, Biological Mechanisms, and Clinical Outcomes, pp. 47–66. Oxford University Press, New York (1999)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. LeMay, M.: Asymmetries of the skull and handedness. Phrenology revisited. J. Neurol. Sci. 32(2), 243–253 (1977)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Davidson, R.J.: The neuropsychology of emotion and affective style. In: Lewis, M., Haviland, J.M. (eds.) Handbook of Emotion, pp. 143–154. Guilford Press, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Fox, N.A.: If it’s not left, it’s right: electroencephalograph asymmetry and the development of emotion. Am. Psychol. 46, 863–872 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Heller, W.: Neuropsychological mechanisms of individual differences in emotion, personality, and arousal. Neuropsychology 7, 476–489 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Coan, J.A., Allen, J.J.B., Harmon-Jones, E.: Voluntary facial expressions and hemispheric asymmetry over the frontal cortex. Psychophysiology 38, 912–925 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Dawson, G., Panagiotides, H., Klinger, L.G., Hill, D.: The role of frontal lobe functioning in the development of infant self-regulatory behavior. Brain Cogn. 20, 152–175 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Tullett, A.H., Harmon-Jones, E., Inzlight, M.: Right frontal cortical asymmetry predicts empathic reactions: support for a link between withdrawal motivation and empathy. Psychophysiology 49, 1145–1153 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Fletcher, P.C., Anderson, J.M., Shanks, D.R., Honey, R., Carpenter, T.A., Donovan, T., Papadakis, N., Bullmore, E.T.: Responses of human frontal cortex to surprising events are predicted by formal associative learning theory. Nat. Neurosci. 4(10), 1043–1048 (2001). Nature Publishing Group

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Davidson, R.J., Schaffer, C.E., Saron, C.: Effects of lateralized presentations of faces on self-reports of emotion and EEG asymmetry in depressed and non-depressed subjects. Psychophysiology 22, 353–364 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Harmon-Jones, E., Allen, J.J.B.: Anger and frontal brain activity: EEG asymmetry consistent with approach motivation despite negative affective valence. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 74, 1310–1316 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Cannon, W.: Wisdom of the Body. W.W. Norton & Company, New York (1932)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Davidson, R.J., Fox, N.A.: Frontal brain asymmetry predicts infants’ response to maternal separation. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 98, 127–131 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Ranasinghe, N., Shen, W.M.: Surprise-based learning for developmental robotics. In: Proceedings of ECSIS Symposium on Learning and Adaptive Behaviours for Robotic Systems, Edinburgh, Scotland (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Frijda, N.H.: The Emotions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Itti, L., Baldi, P.: A principled approach to detecting surprising events in video. In: Proceedings IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 631–637 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  30. McGlynn, F., Smitherman, T., Gothard, K.: Comment on the status of systematic desensitization. Behav. Modif. 28(2), 194–205 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Iglewicz, B., Banerjee, S.: A simple univariate outlier identification procedure. In: Proceedings of the Annual of the American Statistical Association (2001)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study is part of the Serious Gaming project supported by the Royal Netherlands Air Force under contract 080.14.3903.10.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Konstantinos Georgiadis & Herre van Oostendorp

  2. National Aerospace Laboratory, Anthony Fokkerweg 2, 1059 CM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Konstantinos Georgiadis & Jelke van der Pal

Authors
  1. Konstantinos Georgiadis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Herre van Oostendorp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jelke van der Pal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantinos Georgiadis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UniversitĂ  di Genova, Genoa, Italy

    Alessandro De Gloria

  2. Information and Computer Science, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Remco Veltkamp

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Georgiadis, K., van Oostendorp, H., van der Pal, J. (2016). EEG Assessment of Surprise Effects in Serious Games. In: De Gloria, A., Veltkamp, R. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9599. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40216-1_56

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40216-1_56

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40215-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40216-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation