Towards understanding the impact of mental states
on software development using EEG
Gcinizwe Dlamini
2022 IEEE/ACS 19th International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA) | 979-8-3503-1008-5/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/AICCSA56895.2022.10017603
Innopolis University
Innopolis, Russia
g.dlamini@innopolis.university k.singatullina@innopolis.university
Abstract—A programmers mind and mental state are valuable
ingredients in software development process. Burnouts and stress
are the biggest challenges software developers face in the current
age. These challenges has been increasing at a fast rate together
with the demand in more reliable software products. Various
ways to relieve stress have been adopted and some of them
result in autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). In this
study we present a systematic literature review (SLR) focused
on understanding the impact of ASMR in software development
related activities and how it can be identified from brain waves
using electroencephalography (EEG). From the SLR, we found
that there exist a positive correlation between an ASMR therapy
and alleviating state anxiety, which also it is suggested that
ASMR may involve atypical attention processing. Secondly, the
identification of specific brain signals patterns when a person is
experiencing ASMR is possible using EEG. However a specific
effect on software development related activities and software
product is not presented in a scientific literature. Lastly, we
found out that there is a need to conduct experiments focused
on understanding the effect ASMR has on software development
and programmers productivity or creativity. As a result, this
work serves as a bases for conducting experiments focused in
analyzing the mental states evoked by ASMR and the impact in
the software engineering domain.
Index Terms—ASMR, EEG, Stress, Software Development,
Productivity, Health.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In the modern world, computer science specialists are
evaluated on the quality and complexity of the task including
ability to meet deadlines. In other words, it can be concluded
that success in a career correlates with an assessment of
the employers’ productivity. However, in the large prestigious
corporations employees have to meet too many deadlines
while delivering a high-quality result. This leads to increased
stress level, various health problems and productivity de-
crease [1]. The complex problem is finding a way out of
this vicious circle, while maintaining satisfactory productivity
without harming physical and mental health especially in the
information technology domain.
Over the past years researches have classified programming
as a becoming gigantic problem, not only because of its
ever increasing complexity but also because of the increased
demand for creativity and ever increasing quality demand [2].
Software developing teams managers have tried to keep up
with the demand of the market by adopting practices such as
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Karina Singatullina Giancarlo Succi
Innopolis University University of Bologna
Innopolis, Russia Bologna, Italy
g.succi@unibo.it
agile and team building sessions with the aim of increasing
team productivity together with productivity [3], [4].
II. M ETHODOLOGY
In order to propose a solution to the problem posed in
Section I, we decided to conduct a systematic literature review.
First of all, we decided on research questions, which are also
presented in Section I. In this research we follow the review
methodology proposed by Kitchenham [5]. The main parts
of the methodology as adopted from [5], are : 1) research
question definition; 2) keywords and query definition; 3)
inclusion / exclusion criteria and 4) quality assessment.
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
By using specific keywords we found 327 articles and
applied inclusion/exclusion criteria. Only 17 of them were
assessed for quality. After the quality assessment 8 of them
were used to answer our research questions. From the results
it can be noted that an interest to ASMR is growing every
year, as well as the amount of new researches in this area.
The answers are based on the literature retrieved using the
methodology outlined in the previous section (Section II) are
as follows:
A. RQ 1: Is it possible to identify if a person is experiencing
ASMR using an electroencephalography (EEG) device? :
According to the experimental results of the analyzed
studies, it can be concluded that, using EEG, it is currently
possible to observe, measure, analyze and classify changes in
brain waves activity when a person is experiencing ASMR.
However electroencephalogram alone is not sufficient to de-
termine ASMR with a high precision. Several studies over the
years have presented convincing results that prove that ASMR
increases the alpha waves activity [6]–[8]. Seifzadeh et al. [8]
and Fredborgab et al. [6] with the help of EEG presented
results that confirms that same active behaviour of the gamma
waves can be observed when a person is experiencing ASMR.
There are even some common conclusions that the analysis
of the experimental data indicates an experiencing the senso-
rimotor sensations by the test subjects and the presence of a
cognitive process (attention) as well as a relaxation.
B. RQ 2: How is the identification in RQ 1 related to software
engineers productivity and attention?
In a study conducted by Fredborg et al. [6], the researchers
concluded based on experiments that a person experiencing
ASMR show better scores of a mindfulness as well as cu-
riosity. Smith et al. [9], in their study found out that there
exist a positive correlation with dorsal attention network was
found, suggesting that ASMR may involve atypical attentional
processing. To this end we have not found any scientific
research focusing on ASMR effect on productivity or perfor-
mance measurement in the software development domain or
focusing on the effect ASMR has on the software quality and
development process. Instead we have found studies showing
that ASMR calms anxious subjects much faster than silence
which also applies to software developers in a more general
case [10]. In addition, the research community have presented
results that show that ASMR may alleviate state anxiety,
and suggests to use ASMR as a tool ”to improve mood and
reduce arousal with implications for alleviating symptoms of
insomnia and depression” [11], [12]. In consequence this could
minimize the challenges related to stress and burnouts in the
software development domain.
C. RQ 3: Does the ASMR follow some specific pattern in
terms of the brain wave activity?
ASMR shows some specific patterns reflected in the brain
signals captured using EEG. Researchers has presented ev-
idence to the aforementioned claim whereby in their study
they showed that EEG characteristics of experiencing ASMR
increases gamma waves and sensorimotor rhythm while de-
creasing delta-waves [6]–[8]. This supports the evidence and
the conclusion made by Paszkiel et al. [10] on pattern of stress
in brain signals. Paszkiel et al. [10] showed that “stress is
characterized by decreased alpha-frequency brainwave activ-
ity” which means that increasing the alpha-waves indicates
relaxation and calmness. As it was noticed in the RQ 1 answer,
experiencing ASMR often elicit increasing the alpha-waves
activity as a reason for participants to be relaxed. Although all
these results significantly contribute to ASMR knowledge base
extension, the unique brain signals pattern was not revealed as
some results differ from one scientific work to another.
D. RQ 4: Is there any possibility to identify correlation
of ASMR across various types of mental activity related to
programming, assuming that the ASMR level is measured using
EEG devices?
After reviewing in detail all the obtained and filtered litera-
ture, we did not find explicit evidence on ASMR benefits or a
harm for various types of the mental activity related exactly to
programming. As this is a new little-studied phenomena, now
there is a research gap which needs attention especially for
the software development domain. This will serve as a reason
for conducting experiments with a use of an EEG device.
Nevertheless, based on the previous answers, implicit positive
correlation between experiencing ASMR and the mental well-
being was noticed, as programming is also a mental activity
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and, consequently, it requires the same set of the cognitive
processes as any other intellectual practice.
IV. C ONCLUSION
In this paper we presented a systematic literature review
which is aimed at identifying any relationship between produc-
tivity and autonomous sensory meridian response using EEG
in the software engineering domain. Firstly, we formulated
four research questions followed by three search queries
composed from specific keywords. Secondly we retrieved 327
studies 8 of which studies were selected for answering our
research question. We found out that EEG is a suitable and
portable tool that can be used to study the nature of ASMR and
how it affects the brain waves activity and the mental health
in general. However the relationship between the brain signals
patterns of a person experiencing ASMR and productivity or
other software development activity is not studied. As a result
we found out that there exist a research gap whereby there is a
need to analyse the impact of ASMR in the domain of software
engineering. Based on the conducted systematic literature
review we are planning to conduct experiments which will
conclusively answer RQ 2 and RQ 4.
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