People who play games regularly are no more robust to unpleasant images compared to those who do not in preparation for brain research

• Visual discomfort may arise from inefficient processing of visual stimuli. • Theoretically, migraineurs may be less efficient, gamers may be more efficient. • Stimuli that were judged more unpleasant elicited greater SSVEP responses. • Time spent gaming did not relate to unpleasantness ratings. It has been suggested that flickering, striped patterns may be unpleasant to look at as they are difficult stimuli for the visual system to process, and so result in an inefficient, excessive neural response. Some people such as people who experience migraine, may be more susceptible to unpleasant stimuli, and have greater neural responses. Others, such as people who spend a lot of time playing computer games, may have more efficient visual processing and so be more resilient to these unpleasant images. We measured neural responses using steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP, an EEG technique) in both these groups to test this theory. We found that the spatial and temporal frequency content of flickering striped images affects both unpleasantness judgments and SSVEP responses. In line with the ideas of inefficient coding, stimuli eliciting greater SSVEP responses tend to be rated as less pleasant. There was a non-significant trend for greater SSVEP responses in people with migraine compared to controls. Number of hours spent gaming does not relate to unpleasantness ratings in the current study, indicating these individuals are no more robust than others. Future studies might consider a broader range of environmental and individual factors such as sensory sensitivity in terms of understanding neural correlates of visual discomfort.