Mind-Body Interaction in Sport Psychophysiology

Abstract

This chapter examines the state of the art on the psychophysiological mechanisms underpinning mind-body interaction in sport, highlighting the unknown on the brain-heart relationship by means of five major questions. Specifically, the answer to the first methodological question provides basic information on the measures used in sport psychophysiology to quantify brain and heart activities, including their relationship. The following theoretical questions focus on the psychophysiological states underpinning performance optimization (i.e., arousal, emotions, cognitive processing) and on the psychophysiology of interoception and neuromuscular fatigue. Finally, the applied questions would suggest interventions integrating brain-heart and neuro-visceral-cognitive measurements to optimize performance. Overall, sport psychophysiology allows developing new training to achieve peak performance, based on the deep understanding of the underneath processing. Within this framework, available data suggest that the strong bidirectional communication between brain and heart modulates optimal performance.