Research Study Results: Gamers Perform Better With FeelZing
A few months ago Thync and Adamas partnered together to research the effects of the FeelZing Energy Patch on gamers’ cognitive performance. The results turned out to be impressive.
Adamas is an esports training and performance company that was started in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is an emerging global leader in the Esports industry, fueling the performance of world-class gaming organizations.
“We empower our coaches to lead their teams to high performance and deliver tools to increase an Esports athletes’ performance and longevity.”
JAKE MIDDLETON
ESPORTS PERFORMANCE MANAGER
We chose Adamas for this case study because of their holistic approach to esports performance. They focus on lifestyle optimization, things like exercise, science, nutrition, sleep, but also look at the psychology side with mental skill development. The priority in their approach is figuring out how players can set up gaming regimens to optimize their performance while reducing the risk of burnout injury, which is a huge problem in this space.
“A lot of gamers, especially the more amateur college, high-school levels, use a lot of caffeine. You see it at the professional levels as well. In addition, they use a lot of different stamina stimulants like neurotropics and things like that”
JAKE MIDDLETON
ESPORTS PERFORMANCE MANAGER
Jake also pointed out that a lot of times gamers overconsume these supplements during a competition weekend or throughout their matches in practice. That's going to negatively impact their sleep, nutrition, and the amount of movement that they're getting. It's this whole synergistic effect that's going to impact their physical and mental performance.
Thync introduced FeelZing Energy Patches to Adamas as an alternative to chemical stimulants that don’t have an effect on your sleep and don’t cause anxiety or jitters. But it still was unclear whether FeelZing can significantly improve in-game performance.
In order to find it out, Adamas developed a controlled product testing study with gamers. The study was based on Aim Lab protocol with 6 exercises that gamers did.
Aim Lab is an independent third-party aim trainer, developed to help esports players evaluate and improve key components of performance.
Whereas all 6 exercises required visuomotor coordination – rapid identification and movement to a visual target – 2 of them also involved attention and focus – selectively choosing the correct or optimal target among two or more alternative targets. Experienced esports players completed a battery of these exercises while using the FeelZing patch and another round without using the FeelZing patch.
The results of the case study were analyzed by an experienced neuroscientist Jonathan Charlesworth.
“According to the study results, the FeelZing patch specifically improved performance on the games involving attention and focus.
Improvement with the FeelZing patch was highest on Game #5, where success explicitly required the cognitive strategy of responding to the correct target and suppressing responses to the incorrect target. Gamers improved their result in this game by 17% while wearing the FeelZing patch.
Improvement was slightly lower on Game #3, 7.2%, where performance could be improved by responding to the optimal target but could also be improved by other cognitive strategies.
Therefore, games that required attention and focus showed the greatest improvement with the FeelZing patch.”
Dr. Jonathan Charlesworth, PhD.
Head of Clinical Sciences, Noctrix Health
Dr. Charlesworth specifically points out that these performance benefits with the FeelZing patch are closely related to the cognitive construct of “Selective Attention”*, the ability to filter out distractions and focus on important information.
Adamas, in turn, also highlighted the fact that the FeelZing patches improved cognitive abilities, particularly for first-person shooter players.
“Although, I think that Feelzing patch can be applied to any type of games. If you're a MOBA player, a fighting game player, no matter what the genre is, selective attention is really important for you.
It also doesn’t matter if you're a pro or if you're just a casual competitive player.”
JAKE MIDDLETON
ESPORTS PERFORMANCE MANAGER
This study results also suggest that the FeelZing patch provides benefits for the many activities in daily life that require selective attention and focus. These cognitive capabilities are of growing importance for adapting to the increased distractions associated with digital technology in the modern world.
Thync is excited to continue investigating the benefits of the FeelZing patch in larger-scale testing for other activities that involve selective attention and focus.
*Our products are not for the purpose of symptom management or treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Concentration Deficit Disorder (CDD).