Sport expertise and motor imagery abilities shape sensorimotor rhythm modulations during visualisation tasks: Implications for neurofeedback-based cognitive training in athletes
This study demonstrates that while sport expertise enhances sensorimotor rhythm desynchronization during task-specific motor imagery, higher individual imagery ability correlates with reduced activation, suggesting that neurofeedback training protocols should be tailored to an athlete's specific expertise and imagery proficiency.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed. It is not medical advice. Do not make health decisions based on this content. Read full disclaimer
Imagine a basketball player standing at the free-throw line. To make the shot, they do not just move their muscles; they must first summon a precise mental picture of the arc, the spin, and the feeling of the ball leaving their fingertips. This mental rehearsal, known as motor imagery, is a powerful tool athletes use to sharpen their skills without physically exhausting their bodies. For decades, scientists have known that when a person vividly imagines a movement, the same parts of the brain that control real motion light up. Researchers can measure this activity using electrodes on the scalp, which detect a specific drop in brainwave energy over the motor cortex. This drop, often called desynchronization, acts like a signal that the brain is actively engaging with the imagined task. The big question for coaches and scientists is whether this signal is always the same, or if it changes depending on how skilled the athlete is and how good they are at imagining. If the brain signal behaves differently for a champion compared to a beginner, then the training tools designed to help them might need to be different as well.
A team of researchers in France set out to explore exactly this dynamic by comparing two groups of people: seventeen experienced basketball players and sixteen individuals with no formal basketball training. The scientists wanted to see how these two groups used their brains when asked to imagine two specific actions. The first action was a basketball free throw, a move the experts had practiced thousands of times but which was unfamiliar to the novices. The second action was lifting a box from a low shelf to a high one, a task that required similar body movements but was equally new and routine for everyone. Before the experiment began, the participants filled out questionnaires to rate how often they used mental imagery in their daily lives and how easy they found it to picture movements in their minds. The researchers then recorded the brain activity of every participant as they sat quietly and imagined performing these tasks, looking specifically for that tell-tale drop in brainwave energy that signals mental effort.
The results revealed a clear divide between the two groups. The basketball experts were not only better at imagining movements and used this mental practice more frequently, but they also showed a much stronger and more sustained brain signal during the tasks. When the experts imagined the free throw, their brains maintained a steady, deep drop in energy for the entire ten seconds of the exercise. In contrast, the novices showed only a brief flicker of this signal at the very start of the task before their brain activity returned to a resting state. This suggests that the experts had learned to voluntarily turn on the specific neural circuits needed for the job, while the beginners struggled to keep the mental connection active. Furthermore, the experts showed this strong, sustained signal specifically when imagining the basketball shot, their area of expertise, rather than the generic box-lifting task. This indicates that their deep physical experience with the sport helped them build a more robust mental representation of the movement.
However, the story became even more nuanced when the researchers looked closely at the experts themselves. Among the group of skilled players, those who reported the highest ability to visualize movements actually showed the smallest drop in brainwave energy. This counterintuitive finding suggests that as an athlete becomes a master at both the physical skill and the mental practice, their brain becomes more efficient. Instead of needing to fire up a large area of the brain to imagine the shot, the most proficient imagers could achieve the same result with a more focused, economical use of neural resources. It is as if the brain learns to do more with less, streamlining the process so that less overall activity is required to produce a clear mental image.
These findings challenge the standard way that brain-training technology is currently used for athletes. Many existing programs are designed to reward the user for producing the strongest possible brain signal, assuming that more activity means better performance. But this study suggests that for highly skilled athletes, the goal might actually be the opposite. If an athlete is already a master of mental imagery, pushing them to generate a massive brain signal might be unnecessary or even counterproductive. Instead, the most effective training for these individuals might involve learning to refine their focus, aiming for that lean, efficient pattern of brain activity that characterizes true expertise. The researchers conclude that there is no single "best" brain pattern for everyone; rather, the ideal target for mental training depends entirely on the individual's level of sport experience and their natural talent for visualization.
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