Neural Correlates of Expert Behavior During a Domain-Specific Attentional Cueing Task in Badminton Players
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates associated with sports expertise during a domain-specific task in badminton players. We compared event-related potentials activity from collegiate male badminton players and a set of matched athletic controls when they performed a badminton-specific attentional cueing task in which the uncertainty and validity were manipulated. The data showed that, regardless of cue type, the badminton players had faster responses along with greater P3 amplitudes than the athletic controls on the task. Specifically, the contingent negative variation amplitude was smaller for the players than for the controls in the condition involving higher uncertainty. Such an effect, however, was absent in the condition with lower uncertainty. We conclude that expertise in sports is associated with proficient modulation of brain activity during cognitive and motor preparation, as well as response execution, when performing a task related to an individual’s specific sport domain.
Chun-Hao Wang is with the Institute of Physical Education, Health and Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China. Kuo-Cheng Tu is with the Physical Education Office, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China.
© 2023 Human Kinetics