Key result
A single session of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreased somatic and cognitive anxiety and increased self-confidence and heart rate variability in a professional eSports player.
Why the study?
Competitive anxiety correlates with HRV changes and reduces athletic performance, presenting transcranial direct current stimulation as a potential tool to modulate psychophysiological responses.
Does anodal transcranial direct current stimulation reduce competitive anxiety and modulate heart rate variability in a professional eSports player?
Case Report (n=1)
No
Does anodal transcranial direct current stimulation reduce competitive anxiety and modulate heart rate variability in a professional eSports player?
A single session of anodal tDCS over the DLPFC may acutely reduce competitive anxiety and increase parasympathetic modulation (measured via HRV) in eSports athletes, though findings are limited to a single case.
Premature for clinical use in anxiety; hypothesis-generating single-case observation requiring controlled replication.
Previous research has recently shown that high cognitive and somatic anxiety and low self-confidence, before and during sport competitions have a significant correlation with heart rate variability (HRV) changes and can reduce overall athletic performance. Therefore, interventions, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can be a potential tool to reduce psychophysiological anxiety-related and enhance athletic performance. We present a case of a male professional athlete of eSports. We explored the effects of a single session of anodal tDCS (a-tDCS) at 2mA over the dosrsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on competitive anxiety and HRV assessed in baseline (BL), pre-tDCS, post-tDCS and post-game moments and compared between moments. Here, we found a decrease in somatic and cognitive anxiety, as well as an increase in self-confidence and in SDNN index in the post-tDCS moment compared with BL, pre-tDCS and post-game moments. These findings can be a result of an acute change in the attentional state, influencing the processing of threatening information essential for cognitive anxiety and of a self-regulatory process, which can regulate physiological arousal response, such as HRV.
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Machado et al. (2022) conducted a case report in Competitive anxiety (n=1). Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) vs. Baseline, pre-tDCS, and post-game moments was evaluated on Competitive anxiety (CSAI-2R) and Heart Rate Variability (SDNN). A single session of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreased somatic and cognitive anxiety and increased self-confidence and heart rate variability in a professional eSports player.
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