Neurophysiological Insights into Multimedia-based Education: A PRISMA-ScR Review of fNIRS in Game-Integrated Learning Systems

Abstract

Game-integrated learning systems (GILS) are a growing form of multimedia education. Brain-based evidence can help researchers and designers understand how GILS design choices shape how learners think and process information. This scoping review follows PRISMA-ScR and synthesizes 20 empirical studies (2014-2025) in which functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measured brain activity during GILS use. This corpus shows that fNIRS can capture brain responses across GILS platforms and game elements, and points to how neurophysiological evidence can inform multimedia design decisions, such as that different platforms activate different brain regions, that adaptive difficulty reduces cognitive load and improves performance simultaneously, and that collaborative gameplay predicts knowledge retention. The 20 studies in this corpus reflect a field with substantial room to grow. Causal links between brain activation and learning outcomes would give designers more reliable evidence for platform decisions. As fNIRS and multimedia devices improve, standardized methods, classroom settings, and real-time neural adaptation represent directions where future work can translate these findings into practical multimedia learning systems.