Mapping the athlete's brain network. Wang and colleagues provide a critical foundation through an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis and meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) of motor imagery and action anticipation (1). Their findings reveal that athletes recruit a more efficient fronto-parietal-temporal network compared to non-athletes, who rely more heavily on visual regions. This integrated network supports both internally generated (imagery) and externally guided (anticipation) action processes, offering neural markers of perceptual-motor expertise. By quantifying the brain's structural and functional reorganization with long-term training, this work establishes candidate neural biomarkers for assessing elite performance-a key step toward objective neurocognitive profiling.Refining assessment: sustained attention in context. Blumberg and colleagues tackle the challenge of quantifying attention, a core cognitive faculty in elite sport (2). Moving beyond traditional between-group comparisons, they employ a novel within-subjects variance time-course procedure to examine sustained attention in 198 elite athletes across team, speed-strength, and precision-skill sports. Their results show that team sport athletes exhibit superior accuracy on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), but more importantly, they reveal that athletes fluctuate between "in the zone" and "out of the zone" attentional states. This idiographic approach captures the dynamic nature of attention under sport-specific demands, providing a more precise assessment tool that can guide individualized cognitive training regimens.Unveiling mental fatigue as a performance determinant. Bian and colleagues shift the focus to an often-neglected dimension of elite performance-mental fatigue (3). In their opinion article on Olympic combat sports, they synthesize evidence from judo, taekwondo, and fencing, showing that while physical fatigue has been extensively studied, the cognitive toll of high-intensity, intermittent competition remains underexplored. Notably, fencing research has begun to quantify mental fatigue accumulation across consecutive matches and to test brain endurance training (BET) as a countermeasure. The authors call for ecologically valid protocols that replicate real-world workto-rest ratios, decision-making pressures, and environmental distractions. Their work underscores that optimizing elite performance requires not only enhancing cognitive capacities but also managing cognitive load and fatigue resilience.Silva and colleagues provide an empirical investigation of mental fatigue in Paralympic boccia (4). Eleven athletes (six with cerebral palsy, five without) underwent three experimental conditions: mental fatigue induction, low cognitive effort, and control. Accuracy was assessed at distances of 3, 6, and 9 meters. Contrary to the broader expectation that mental fatigue impairs performance, the results showed no significant effect of either mental fatigue or low cognitive effort on accuracy. This null finding is striking and important: it suggests that the impact of mental fatigue may be sport-specific, population-specific, or task-specific. While Bian et al. highlight the need to manage mental fatigue in dynamic, time-constrained combat sports, Silva et al. remind us that not all precision-based, self-paced sports are equally susceptible. Together, these two contributions underscore that the relationship between mental fatigue and elite performance is more nuanced than previously assumed.Translating theory into practice: movement sequences from motor development. Msaidie and colleagues offer a practical intervention grounded in neurocognitive principles (5). Their narrative review proposes sequences of combinations of movements (SCM) based on early motor development stages (MDS), arguing that these foundational patterns-posture, balance, coordination-can refine sensorimotor integration and neuroplasticity in elite athletes. While currently untested in high-performance sport, the SCM framework provides testable hypotheses for warm-up, injury prevention, and recovery protocols. This work bridges the gap between developmental neuroscience and applied training, exemplifying the translational goal of our Research Topic.Together, these five contributions illuminate a pathway from quantification to optimization, while also revealing important boundary conditions. First, quantifying elite performance demands multi-level approaches: from large-scale brain networks (Wang et Future research should integrate these strands. For instance, combining neuroimaging with longitudinal tracking of mental fatigue could reveal how neural efficiency degrades under cumulative cognitive load. Comparative studies across different sport populationsincluding athletes with disabilities-could clarify why mental fatigue affects some groups more than others.Similarly, SCM protocols could be evaluated using the within-subjects attentional metrics developed by Blumberg and colleagues. Interdisciplinary collaborationsneuroscience, biomechanics, psychophysiology, and coaching-will be essential to move from proof-of-concept to scalable solutions. The journey from quantifying the elite brain to optimizing its performance has only just begun.
Tao Song (Fri,) studied this question.