This review highlights the role of specific EEG patterns during preshot preparation in elite athletes and discusses the theoretical mind-body issues in sports psychophysiology.
May inform EEG-based mental training in elite athletes; leaves open causal validation and broader applicability.
High levels of athletic performance are frequently attributed to mental states. Evidence for this attribution comes mainly from phenomenological reports of athletes. However, research with elite performers using electrophysiological measures has tracked changes in nervous system activity in real time during performance, which may further understanding of such states. Specific patterns of psychophysiological activity from the cerebral cortex, in the form of event-related slow potentials (SPs), as well as spectral content measured by electroencephalography (EEG), occur in the few seconds of performance (preshot) preparation. We discuss these data. We suggest that the logical structure of research with athletes differs from other psychophysiological research. We emphasize the theoretical mind-body issues and the logical structure of these investigations to suggest directions for future research.
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Lawton et al. (1998) studied this question.
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