Differences in Visuo-Motor Control in Skilled vs. Novice Martial Arts Athletes during Sustained and Transient Attention Tasks: A Motor-Related Cortical Potential Study

Abstract

Cognitive and motor processes are essential for optimal athletic performance. Individuals trained in different skills and sports may have specialized cognitive abilities and motor strategies related to the characteristics of the activity and the effects of training and expertise. Most studies have investigated differences in motor-related cortical potential (MRCP) during self-paced tasks in athletes but not in stimulus-related tasks. The aim of the present study was to identify the differences in performance and MRCP between skilled and novice martial arts athletes during two different types of tasks: a sustained attention task and a transient attention task. Behavioral and electrophysiological data from twenty-two martial arts athletes were obtained while they performed a continuous performance task (CPT) to measure sustained attention and a cued continuous performance task (c-CPT) to measure transient attention. MRCP components were analyzed and compared between groups. Electrophysiological data in the CPT task indicated larger prefrontal positive activity and greater posterior negativity distribution prior to a motor response in the skilled athletes, while novices showed a significantly larger response-related P3 after a motor response in centro-parietal areas. A different effect occurred in the c-CPT task in which the novice athletes showed strong prefrontal positive activity before a motor response and a large response-related P3, while in skilled athletes, the prefrontal activity was absent. We propose that during the CPT, skilled athletes were able to allocate two different but related processes simultaneously according to CPT demand, which requires controlled attention and controlled motor responses. On the other hand, in the c-CPT, skilled athletes showed better cue facilitation, which permitted a major economy of resources and “automatic” or less controlled responses to relevant stimuli. In conclusion, the present data suggest that motor expertise enhances neural flexibility and allows better adaptation of cognitive control to the requested task.

Task-rest modulation of basal ganglia connectivity in mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease

“…Automaticity of response selection with repetition is a basic component of motor learning, permits saving of resources (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2014), and plays an essential role in neuronal computational processes underlying controlled and automatic aspects of motor behavior (Wu et al, 2014) and cognition (Lebedev et al, 2014). PD patients with more severe UPDRS-III motor symptoms showed less interference from incongruent Stroop word information in the easiest task condition, i.e., cue-color match trials with response repetition, which suggests that with more severe motor symptoms less resources were available to process cognitive information such as color-word incongruency in a color matching task (Schulte et al, 2011), potentially due to alterations in basal ganglia–frontal cortical circuitry in PD (Camicioli et al, 2009).…”

Spatial Orientation In Sportsmen

“…Motor expertise enhances flexibility and better cognitive control to the requested task (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2014).…”

“…Individuals practicing different kinds of sports may differ in their cognitive abilities related to the characteristics of the activity, different training skills and expertise (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2014).…”

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“…Indeed, this activity pattern has been observed in previous reports comparing expert and less expert athletes or non-athletes, and it suggests superior cognitive processes in high-level athletes. Two main hypotheses support cognitive superiority of expert athletes in comparison with less expert athletes and non-athletes: The Neural Efficiency hypothesis (for review, see Babiloni et al 2009;Babiloni et al 2010a;Babiloni et al 2010b;Del Percio et al 2010) and the further reinterpretation, Neural Flexibility (for review, see Spinelli et al 2011;Sanchez-Lopez et al 2014). The Neural Efficiency hypothesis implies lower spatial cortical activation in expert athletes than less expert groups.…”

“…Athletes who consume or had consumed medications or drugs that affect the nervous system in the last year were eliminated from the study. EEG database of participants from a previous study performed by the authors where motor-related cortical potentials were investigated (Sanchez-Lopez et al 2014) together with data of new participants were analyzed for this paper.…”