Focusing Attention on Muscle Exertion Increases EEG Coherence in an Endurance Cycling Task

Fronso, Selenia di; Tamburro, Gabriella; Robazza, Claudio; Bortoli, Laura; Comani, Silvia; Bertollo, Maurizio

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01249

Cited by 32 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Since mindfulness training promotes moment-to-moment awareness of such internal cues, it stands to reason that such training may promote the use of an associative attention strategy which could directly benefit physical performance. However, associative strategies can be more or less beneficial depending on the locus of attention (Comani et al, 2014;Bertollo et al, 2015;di Fronso et al, 2018). Future studies could investigate effects of mindfulness interventions on attention strategy employed during performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Benefits Psychological Well-Being, Sleep Quality, and Athletic Performance in Female Collegiate Rowers

Jones

Kaur

Miller³

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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Factors such as psychological well-being, sleep quality, and athletic coping skills can influence athletic performance. Mindfulness-based interventions, including mindfulnessbased stress reduction (MBSR), have been shown to benefit these factors, suggesting they may, at least indirectly, benefit athletic performance. Moreover, while mindfulness training has been linked to better accuracy in some high-precision sports, whether it can improve non-precision elements of athletic performance is unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of MBSR on psychological well-being, sleep, athletic coping skills, and rowing performance in collegiate rowers in a controlled experimental design. Members of a Division I NCAA Women's Rowing team completed either an 8-week MBSR course along with their regular athletic training program (Intervention group) or the athletic training program alone (Control group). Measurements of interest were taken at baseline and again either during or shortly following the intervention. In contrast to the Control group, the Intervention group showed improvements in psychological well-being, subjective and objective sleep quality, athletic coping skills, and rowing performance as measured by a 6,000-m ergometer test. Improvements in athletic coping skills, psychological well-being, and subjective sleep quality were all correlated with increases in mindfulness in the Intervention group. These results suggest that mindfulness training may benefit non-precision aspects of athletic performance. Incorporating mindfulness training into athletic training programs may benefit quality of life and performance in student athletes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Benefits Psychological Well-Being, Sleep Quality, and Athletic Performance in Female Collegiate Rowers

Jones

Kaur

Miller³

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…Rated perceived exertion was collected every minute during cycling to detect the participants’ exhaustion using the CR-10 Borg scale ( Borg and Borg, 2010 ; Staiano et al, 2018 ). Given that reaching exhaustion is an individual process that depends on the participants’ fitness and expertise ( di Fronso et al, 2018 , 2019 ), the duration of the endurance task ranged from approximately 10 to 28 min (18 ± 5 min). Exhaustion was immediately followed by an active recovery period of 2 min, during which the participants continued cycling with eyes closed and the ergometer power was set back to 50 W. The task ended with a passive recovery period of 2 min, during which the participants were asked to stop cycling and maintain their eyes closed while sitting on the cycle-ergometer.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each frequency band and each participant, we then obtained six matrices of LC values that could range between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates no coherence and 1 indicates perfect coherence between two time series of current density. To retain only significant functional connections across ROIs, we thresholded the LC matrices ( Berchicci et al, 2015 ; di Fronso et al, 2018 ): We calculated the median and the median absolute deviation (MAD) of the LC value distribution for each LC matrix; only LC values > (median + 1 MAD) were considered as meaningful functional connections, retained and set equal to 1, whereas all other LC values were set equal to 0. Therefore, we obtained 12 (28 × 28) undirected binary adjacency matrices for each subject (six matrices for each frequency band).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Comani et al (2014) analyzed EEG data recorded during an exhaustive cycling test by calculating the coherence patterns at the sensor level and detected functional connectivity patterns related to three different attentional strategies. Similarly, di Fronso et al (2018) performed a coherence analysis to detect cortical connectivity patterns in relation to the attentional strategies and the phases of an endurance cycling task. The Alpha and Beta bands were considered, and the results showed higher EEG coherence values at rest than during cycling periods for all electrode pairs and frequency bands, irrespective of the attentional strategy adopted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modulation of Brain Functional Connectivity and Efficiency During an Endurance Cycling Task: A Source-Level EEG and Graph Theory Approach

Tamburro

Fronso

Robazza

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Various methods have been employed to investigate different aspects of brain activity modulation related to the performance of a cycling task. In our study, we examined how functional connectivity and brain network efficiency varied during an endurance cycling task. For this purpose, we reconstructed EEG signals at source level: we computed current densities in 28 anatomical regions of interest (ROIs) through the eLORETA algorithm, and then we calculated the lagged coherence of the 28 current density signals to define the adjacency matrix. To quantify changes of functional network efficiency during an exhaustive cycling task, we computed three graph theoretical indices: local efficiency (LE), global efficiency (GE), and density (D) in two different frequency bands, Alpha and Beta bands, that indicate alertness processes and motor binding/fatigue, respectively. LE is a measure of functional segregation that quantifies the ability of a network to exchange information locally. GE is a measure of functional integration that quantifies the ability of a network to exchange information globally. D is a global measure of connectivity that describes the extent of connectivity in a network. This analysis was conducted for six different task intervals: pre-cycling; initial, intermediate, and final stages of cycling; and active recovery and passive recovery. Fourteen participants performed an incremental cycling task with simultaneous EEG recording and rated perceived exertion monitoring to detect the participants’ exhaustion. LE remained constant during the endurance cycling task in both bands. Therefore, we speculate that fatigue processes did not affect the segregated neural processing. We observed an increase of GE in the Alpha band only during cycling, which could be due to greater alertness processes and preparedness to stimuli during exercise. Conversely, although D did not change significantly over time in the Alpha band, its general reduction in the Beta bands during cycling could be interpreted within the framework of the neural efficiency hypothesis, which posits a reduced neural activity for expert/automated performances. We argue that the use of graph theoretical indices represents a clear methodological advancement in studying endurance performance.

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“…Interestingly, the present study adds to the literature of psychology in the domain of cycling; previous psychological studies addressed other aspects related to cycling, such as mood (e.g., Murgia et al, 2016), recovery-stress balance (e.g., Filho et al, 2013Filho et al, , 2015, attentional focus (e.g., Bertollo et al, 2015;di Fronso et al, 2018), and psychobiosocial states (e.g., Robazza et al, 2017). As concerns psychobiosocial states, other studies highlighted their potential role as mediators of the relationship between the perceived motivational climate by young athletes and their motivation to continue playing sports (e.g., Bortoli et al, 2009Bortoli et al, , 2011Bortoli et al, , 2014; thus, psychobiosocial states also could be taken into consideration by future studies aiming to better understand the role of burnout in sport abandonment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Former Road Cyclists Still Involved in Cycling Report Lower Burnout Levels Than Those Who Abandoned This Sport

et al. 2020

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Despite the numerous benefits associated with sport practice, many children and adolescents end up quitting it year after year, with a stable dropout rate between 10 and 19 years of age. Among the causes of sport abandonment, the scientific literature highlights the presence of burnout as a fundamental factor. In this regard, the aim of the present study was to investigate the levels of the three components of sport burnout-emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation-reported by a sample of young (former) athletes, depending on whether their sport abandonment was relative (i.e., change to another sport modality) or definitive. In particular, participants were former agonist road cyclists, who have been divided into three groups on the basis of what they did after abandoning road bicycle racing, namely: (a) those still involved in cycling, either in a different specialty (e.g., mountain bike) or with a different role (e.g., coach for kids); (b) those who started practicing a different sport; and (c) those who definitively abandoned sports. The general hypothesis was that, with respect to those who changed sport and those who definitively abandoned it, those still involved in cycling would report experiencing lower levels of the three burnout components during the last year practicing it. To test this hypothesis, the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke and Smith, 2001) was administered to 85 young former road cyclists. The results seem to support the hypothesis for two out of the three components, namely, emotional and physical exhaustion and sport devaluation; on the other hand, for reduced sense of accomplishment, no difference among the three groups emerged. Further research is needed to deepen the understanding of such processes, also in relation with other relevant constructs; yet, the results of the present study should already raise the awareness of sport organizations on the need to deal with this and related phenomena by adopting appropriate strategies to ensure the well-being of young athletes, thus trying to reduce early dropout.

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Focusing Attention on Muscle Exertion Increases EEG Coherence in an Endurance Cycling Task

Cited by 32 publications

References 51 publications

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Benefits Psychological Well-Being, Sleep Quality, and Athletic Performance in Female Collegiate Rowers

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Benefits Psychological Well-Being, Sleep Quality, and Athletic Performance in Female Collegiate Rowers

Modulation of Brain Functional Connectivity and Efficiency During an Endurance Cycling Task: A Source-Level EEG and Graph Theory Approach

Former Road Cyclists Still Involved in Cycling Report Lower Burnout Levels Than Those Who Abandoned This Sport

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