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Flow is thought to occur when both task difficulty and individual ability are high. Flow experiences are highly rewarding and are associated with well-being. Importantly, media use can be a source of flow. Communication scholars have a long history of theoretical inquiry into how flow biases media selection, how different media content results in flow, and how flow influences media processing and effects. However, the neurobiological basis of flow during media use is not well understood, limiting our explanatory capacity to specify how media contribute to flow or well-being. Here, we show that flow is associated with a flexible and modular brain-network topology, which may offer an explanation for why flow is simultaneously perceived as high-control and effortless, even when the task difficulty is high. Our study tests core predictions derived from synchronization theory, and our results provide qualified support for the theory while also suggesting important theoretical updates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flow is characterized by a high level of intrinsic reward that results from a balance between task difficulty and individual ability. The Synchronization Theory of Flow offers an explanation for the neural basis of this process. It predicts an energetically-optimized, brain-network organization between cognitive control and reward regions when task difficulty and individual ability are balanced. While initial results provide support for structural predictions, the many-to-many connectivity and energetic optimality hypotheses remain untested. Our study addresses this gap. Subjects played a video game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We experimentally manipulated task difficulty and individual ability. Using graph theoretical analyses, we show that the balanced-difficulty condition (compared to low- or high-difficulty) was associated with the highest average network degree in the fronto-parietal control network (implicated in cognitive control) and had the lowest global efficiency value, indicating low metabolic cost, and thereby testing Synchronization Theory's core predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]