electroencephalography (EEG) and functional MRI to observe the neurophysiological indices surrounding performance. Early use of EEG demonstrated differences between asymptomatic subjects and subjects recovering from sports-related concussion. Within the SRC spectrum of head injury, resting EEG has demonstrated changes
Search Results
Concussion: A Window Into Brain–Movement Relations in Motor Control
Michael Gay and Semyon Slobounov
Psychological Momentum in Target Shooting: Cortical, Cognitive-Affective, and Behavioral Responses
Scott E. Kerick, Seppo E. Iso-Ahola, and Bradley D. Hatfield
The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which perceptions of psychological momentum (PM) are associated with affect and whether affective responses accounted for a significant proportion of target shooting performance variance. This purpose was examined within the framework of the multidimensional model of momentum. Precipitating PM events were manipulated by providing false performance feedback to isolate psychological effects on performance. EEG data were obtained during real-time performance, and frontal asymmetry was analyzed to assess the viability of the approach-withdrawal motivational system as an underlying mechanism to explain the PM-performance relationship. Although cognitive perceptions of PM were reliably altered by the feedback in the hypothesized direction, affective responses, frontal asymmetry, and shooting performance did not significantly differ among feedback conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that cognitive PM perceptions may evolve in response to precipitating events independently from affective, electrophysiological, and performance effects in novice participants.
Frontal Asymmetry, Dispositional Affect, and Physical Activity in Older Adults
Eric E. Hall and Steven J. Petruzzello
Physical activity has been consistently linked to better mental health—greater positive affect and life satisfaction, less negative affect, anxiety, and depression (Petruzzello et al., 1991; McAuley & Rudolph, 1995). Brain activation patterns have been linked to dispositional affect: greater relative left anterior hemisphere activation relates to positive affect, and greater relative right anterior activation relates to negative affect (Davidson, 1992). In this study, measures of resting EEG frontal asymmetry, dispositional affect, and physical activity were obtained from 41 older adults. Frontal asymmetry significantly predicted positive affect. In the high active group (n = 21), frontal asymmetry significantly predicted affective valence and satisfaction with life; in the low active group (n = 20), it significantly predicted negative affect. Physical activity was also significantly related to better dispositional affect. These findings suggest that the relationship between frontal brain activity and dispositional affect is influenced by physical activity in older adults.
Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback Enhances Golf Putting Performance
Ming-Yang Cheng, Chung-Ju Huang, Yu-Kai Chang, Dirk Koester, Thomas Schack, and Tsung-Min Hung
Sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) activity has been related to automaticity during skilled action execution. However, few studies have bridged the causal link between SMR activity and sports performance. This study investigated the effect of SMR neurofeedback training (SMR NFT) on golf putting performance. We hypothesized that preelite golfers would exhibit enhanced putting performance after SMR NFT. Sixteen preelite golfers were recruited and randomly assigned into either an SMR or a control group. Participants were asked to perform putting while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded, both before and after intervention. Our results showed that the SMR group performed more accurately when putting and exhibited greater SMR power than the control group after 8 intervention sessions. This study concludes that SMR NFT is effective for increasing SMR during action preparation and for enhancing golf putting performance. Moreover, greater SMR activity might be an EEG signature of improved attention processing, which induces superior putting performance.
Understanding and Controlling Cortical Activity for Superior Performance
Chih-Yen Chang and Tsung-Min Hung
. Titles and abstracts were published in English; the studies were published between 1984 and April 2019; the electronic databases used included ISI Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus; and keywords and search terms included sport, attention/golf/shooting, and electroencephalographic (EEG)/cortical activity
Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations Between Athlete Burnout, Insomnia, and Polysomnographic Indices in Young Elite Athletes
Markus Gerber, Simon Best, Fabienne Meerstetter, Sandrine Isoard-Gautheur, Henrik Gustafsson, Renzo Bianchi, Daniel J. Madigan, Flora Colledge, Sebastian Ludyga, Edith Holsboer-Trachsler, and Serge Brand
only report poorer subjective sleep quality, but also have less favorable objective sleep patterns, as measured via electroencephalography (EEG; Brand, Beck, Hatzinger, et al., 2010 ; Ekstedt et al., 2006 ; Söderström, Ekstedt, Akerstedt, Nilsson, & Axelsson, 2004 ). Finally, previous investigations
Induced Gamma-Band Activity During Voluntary Movement: EEG Analysis for Clinical Purposes
Carlos Amo, Miguel Ortiz del Castillo, Rafael Barea, Luis de Santiago, Alejandro Martínez-Arribas, Pedro Amo-López, and Luciano Boquete
Objective:
Propose a simplified method applicable in routine clinical practice that uses EEG to assess induced gamma-band activity (GBA) in the 30–90 Hz frequency range in cerebral motor areas.
Design:
EEG recordings (25 healthy subjects) of cerebral activity (at rest, motor task). GBA was obtained as power spectral density (PSD). GBA — defined as the gamma index (Iγ) — was calculated using the basal GBA (γB) and motor GBA (γMOV) PSD values.
Results:
The mean values of Iγ were (Iγ R (right hand) = 1.30, Iγ L (left hand) = 1.22). Manual laterality showed a correlation with Iγ.
Conclusions:
Iγ may provide a useful way of indirectly assessing operation of activated motor neuronal circuits. It could be applied to diagnosis of motor area pathologies and as follow up in rehabilitation processes. Likewise, Iγ could enable the assessment of motor capacity, physical training and manual laterality in sport medicine.
The Effects of Aerobic Training on Cardiovascular Responses to Mental Stress: An Examination of Underlying Mechanisms
Karla A. Kubitz and Daniel M. Landers
This study examined the effects of an 8-week aerobic training program on cardiovascular responses to mental stress. Dependent variables included electrocardiographic activity, blood pressure, electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, state anxiety, and state anger. Quantification of indicators of sympathetic, parasympathetic, and central nervous system activity (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, T-wave amplitude, and EEG activity, respectively) allowed examination of possible underlying mechanisms. Subjects (n = 24) were randomly assigned to experimental (training) and control (no training) conditions. Pre- and posttesting examined cardiorespiratory fitness and responses to mental stress (i.e., Stroop and mental arithmetic tasks). MANOVAs identified a significant effect on cardiorespiratory fitness, heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and EEG alpha laterality. The results appear consistent with the hypothesis that enhanced parasympathetic nervous system activity and decreased central nervous system laterality serve as mechanisms underlying certain aerobic training effects.
Do Male and Female Cyclists’ Cortical Activity Differ Before and During Cycling Exercise?
Sebastian Ludyga, Thomas Gronwald, and Kuno Hottenrott
Although men and women are suggested to vary in resistance to fatigue, possible sex difference in its central component have rarely been investigated via electroencephalography (EEG). Therefore, we examined differences in cortical activity between male and female cyclists (n = 26) during cycling exercise. Participants performed an incremental test to derive the anaerobic threshold from the lactate power curve. In addition, cyclists’ cortical activity was recorded with EEG before and during cycling exercise. Whereas women showed higher frontal alpha and beta activity at rest, no sex-specific differences of relative EEG spectral power occurred during cycling at higher intensity. Women and men’s brains respond similarly during submaximal cycling, as both sexes show an inverted U-shaped curve of alpha power. Therefore, sex differences observable at rest vanish after the onset of exercise.
Mobile Electroencephalography Reveals Differences in Cortical Processing During Exercises With Lower and Higher Cognitive Demands in Preadolescent Children
Linda Becker, Daniel Büchel, Tim Lehmann, Miriam Kehne, and Jochen Baumeister
( 43 ). Nevertheless, there is an increasing body of electroencephalographic (EEG) studies reporting favorable effects on cortical activation after LCD exercises in children. For example, enhanced allocation of attentional resources during cognitive performance and improvements in neurophysiological
