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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.01.15.699797

Joint Pupillometry and Heart Rate Monitoring Identify Zone-Like High Performance in Esports

Dobashi, S.·Takahashi, S.·Yamaguchi, T.·Tachibana, Y.·Kasahara, R.·Takamizawa, R.·Matsui, T.
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Abstract

Modern digital activities, such as esports, combine intense cognitive demands with limited whole-body movement, weakening calibration between subjective awareness and functional states. Cognitive deterioration during prolonged esports precedes subjective fatigue, suggesting subjective flow likewise fails to reveal efficient cognitive-sensorimotor performance states. Although efficient cognitive-sensorimotor performance may involve central-autonomic coordination reflected in intrapersonal pupil-heart synchrony, the functional role of this coordination remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that, during esports play, central-autonomic coordination contributes to an efficient cognitive-sensorimotor performance state that subjective flow fails to capture. Fourteen young men completed sessions involving watching a fighting game, playing against a computer-controlled opponent, and competing against another person. We assessed pupil diameter, heart rate, subjective flow, subjective workload, and objective in-game performance. Esports competition increased subjective flow without improving objective in-game performance and reduced combat efficiency, demonstrating a subjectively optimal experience need not signal high in-game performance efficiency. Data-driven clustering identified a low-reactivity state combining superior objective in-game performance with lower subjective workload. This state showed selectively sustained pupil-heart synchrony. Reduced workload partly accounted for the association between pupil-heart synchrony and objective in-game performance. Our findings suggest that individuals fail to recognize periods of high in-game performance efficiency, as cognitive deterioration escapes awareness during prolonged esports. This efficiency is associated with pupil-heart synchrony, supporting the hypothesis that central-autonomic coordination contributes to an efficient cognitive-sensorimotor performance state. Pupil-heart synchrony may therefore serve as a mechanism-based biomarker for detecting efficient states beyond awareness, optimizing objective task performance and the timing of recovery in demanding digital environments.

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Dobashi, S., Takahashi, S., Yamaguchi, T., Tachibana, Y., Kasahara, R., Takamizawa, R., Matsui, T.. 2026-01-16. Joint Pupillometry and Heart Rate Monitoring Identify Zone-Like High Performance in Esports. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.15.699797

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