Mind and body: Psychophysiological profiles of instructional and motivational self‐talk

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

EEG correlates of verbal and conscious processing of motor control in sport and human movement: a systematic review

“…One study reported a global decrease in alpha power when encouraging participants to engage in conscious, verbal, motor processing, but no changes when encouraging verbal rehearsal only (i.e., task unrelated verbal rehearsal; Parr et al, 2020). The other study found instructional self-talk (assumed to provoke increased conscious processing) to increase parietal alpha power relative to motivational self-talk during a golfputting task (Bellomo et al, 2020). No differences were observed across the left-temporal region.…”

“…Though the comparative task approach pioneered by Hatfield et al (1984) and developed in subsequent studies has represented an important first step to understand the functional meaning of EEG patterns observed during motor tasks, it cannot establish unambiguously that changes in left-temporal alpha during movement uniquely reflect verbal processing rather than another psychophysiological phenomenon. An extension of this is the experimental manipulation approach adopted in two recent studies by Parr et al (2020) and Bellomo et al (2020), whereby cortical activity was assessed via EEG while verbal processing was directly manipulated (via self-talk instructions) during the execution of a jar-manipulation and golf putting task, respectively. Contrary to expectations, changes in verbal processing during movement did not elicit changes that could be attributed to left-temporal alpha in either study, casting doubt on its validity as a marker of verbal processing during the conscious control of movements.…”

“…Left-temporal alpha power. Only two studies attempted to directly manipulate the attentional focus of participants during motor performance via self-talk (Parr et al, 2020;Bellomo et al, 2020). One study reported a global decrease in alpha power when encouraging participants to engage in conscious, verbal, motor processing, but no changes when encouraging verbal rehearsal only (i.e., task unrelated verbal rehearsal; Parr et al, 2020).…”

“…One study reported T7-Fz connectivity to be unchanged, relative to baseline, when encouraging verbal or conscious processing (Parr et al, 2020). The other study found motivational self-talk to elicit greater frontal (Fz) connectivity with all channels (including T7) compared to instructional self-talk (greater engagement of conscious processing; Bellomo et al, 2020).…”

Type of self‐talk matters: Its effects on perceived exertion, cardiorespiratory, and cortisol responses during an iso‐metabolic endurance exercise

“…Meanwhile, somatosensory feedback modulates the central neural drive via the bottom‐up afference to the brainstem, limbic system, and cerebral cortex (Bechara et al, 2000; Damasio, 1996; Taylor et al, 2010; Thayer & Lane, 2000). Within the bi‐directional brain/body framework, the interpretation of associative motivational self‐talk would increase the top‐down control of action, physical effort, and the sympathetic drive (Bellomo et al, 2020; Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2011) as physiological changes due to the exercise stress convey information from the periphery to the central nervous system affecting RPE, the self‐talk interpretation, cardiorespiratory response and self‐pace (St Clair Gibson & Foster, 2007; St Clair Gibson et al, 2006; Williamson, 2010). In addition, induced dissociation can alter the interplay between central motor drive, central cardiovascular command, and perceived exertion due to the limited PFC capacity to process both the peripheral feedback and the induced external stimulus during moderate‐to‐high exercise intensities (Fontes et al, 2020; Maddigan et al, 2019; Rejeski, 1985).…”