Neuropsychological functions of nonverbal hand movements and gestures during sports

Abstract

Emotional body-distant gestures are a prominent feature of winning athletes. Because negative emotions have been associated to increased self-touch behaviour, we investigated the hypothesis that athletes change from a more body-distant nonverbal hand movement behaviour when winning to a body-focused behaviour when losing. Nonverbal hand movements of professional right-handed tennis athletes were videotaped during competition and analyzed by certified raters using the NEUROpsychological GESture(NEUROGES)System. The results showed that losing athletes increase their irregular, on body, and phasic on body hand movements, particularly with the left hand. Emotion / attitude rise gestures with the right hand characterised winning athletes. The data suggest that the nonverbal hand movements of athletes serve different neuropsychological functions. Winners nonverbally express their positive feelings by body-distant gestures but change towards their own body to regulate stress when losing.

Phasic and repetitive self-touch differ in hemodynamic response in the prefrontal cortex–An fNIRS study

“…To ensure that the activation of the PFC can be attributed as little as possible to motor behavior, our design took into account two aspects. First, we presented familiar motor behavior stimuli (Lausberg, 2013 ; Heubach, 2016 ; Kreyenbrink et al, 2017 ; Densing et al, 2018 ; Reinecke et al, 2020 ; Neumann et al, 2022 ). Second, we presented each stimulus six times in a row.…”

“…Self-touching is ubiquitous in everyday life (Grunwald et al, 2014 ; Kreyenbrink et al, 2017 ; Lausberg, 2022 ). According to observational studies, self-touch occurs in emotional, aroused, and stressful situations (Lausberg, 2013 ; Grunwald et al, 2014 ; Heubach, 2016 ; Kreyenbrink et al, 2017 ; Densing et al, 2018 ; Reinecke et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Furley, 2021 ; Neumann et al, 2022 ). Some researchers propose a self-regulatory function of self-touch (Freedman et al, 1972 ; Grunwald et al, 2014 ; Helmich et al, 2014 ; Densing et al, 2018 ).…”

“…It is not the quantity of a touch that is important but the quality of the contact (Spencer et al, 2003 ; Schaal et al, 2004 ; van Mourik and Beek, 2004 ; Huys et al, 2008 ; Lausberg, 2013 ). The different self-touch types occur in different contexts in daily life (Heubach, 2016 ; Mueller et al, 2019 ; Neumann et al, 2022 ). Repetitive self-touch is associated with better psychological wellbeing, in contrast to irregular self-touch (Reinecke et al, 2020 ).…”