Practice makes efficient: Cortical alpha oscillations are associated with improved golf putting performance.

Abstract

Practice of a motor skill results in improved performance and decreased movement awareness. The psychomotor efficiency hypothesis proposes that the development of motor expertise through practice is accompanied by physiological refinements whereby irrelevant processes are suppressed and relevant processes are enhanced. The present study employed a test–retest design to evaluate the presence of greater neurophysiological efficiency with practice and mediation analyses to identify the factors accounting for performance improvements, in a golf putting task. Putting performance, movement-specific conscious processing, electroencephalographic alpha power and alpha connectivity were measured from 12 right-handed recreational golfers (age: M = 21 years; handicap: M = 23) before and after 3 practice sessions. As expected, performance improved and conscious processing decreased with training. Mediation analyses revealed that improvements in performance were partly attributable to increased regional gating of alpha power and reduced cross-regional alpha connectivity. However, changes in conscious processing were not associated with performance improvements. Increased efficiency was manifested at the neurophysiological level as selective inhibition and functional isolation of task-irrelevant cortical regions (temporal regions) and concomitant functional activation of task-relevant regions (central regions). These findings provide preliminary evidence for the development of greater psychomotor efficiency with practice in a precision aiming task.

Don’t look, don’t think, just do it! Toward an understanding of alpha gating in a discrete aiming task

“…Within the framework of the alpha gating-by-inhibition model (Jensen & Mazaheri, 2010), this result can be interpreted as deficient gating of cognitive resources across the cortex. In line with previous interpretations of the movement-related alpha gating phenomenon (Gallicchio et al, 2017;Gallicchio, Finkenzeller, et al, 2016), the weaker alpha gate observed for the random group reflects less psychomotor efficiency (Hatfield, 2018;Hatfield & Hillman, 2001) compared to the blocked group. These novel findings provide evidence that increased inhibition of cortical regions that are not involved with movement seems to be more important than increased activation of regions that are responsible for movement control.…”

“…Based on the proposed inhibitory function of cortical alpha (Klimesch, ; Klimesch et al, ) and the gating‐by‐inhibition model (Jensen & Mazaheri, ), our findings imply that cognitive activity was clearly diverted away from processes performed in the occipital region and, to a lesser extent, the temporal and frontal regions, and instead routed toward processes performed in the central regions. This finding provides further evidence of the existence of the aiming movement‐related alpha gating phenomenon (Gallicchio et al, ; Gallicchio, Finkenzeller, et al, ).…”

“…Previous investigations have observed greater alpha power (i.e., stronger inhibition) in the left temporal region as a function of expertise (Haufler, Spalding, Santa Maria, & Hatfield, ), performance (Gallicchio, Finkenzeller, et al, ), and training (Gallicchio et al, ; Kerick, Douglass, & Hatfield, ; Landers et al, ). Past studies have also found increased functional disconnection between the left temporal region and other regions involved with movement as a function of expertise (Deeny, Hillman, Janelle, & Hatfield, ), performance (Gallicchio, Cooke, & Ring, ), and training (Gallicchio et al, ; Zhu, Poolton, Wilson, Maxwell, & Masters, ). Left temporal activity in a movement task has been interpreted as cognitive/verbal interference during motor preparation (Deeny et al, ) and reinvestment of declarative knowledge to consciously monitor and control movements (Zhu et al, ).…”

“…This pattern has been previously interpreted as the timely allocation of resources to motor preparation processes (Cooke et al, ). Importantly, the peak‐to‐trough pattern has been found to be greater for experts than novices (Cooke et al, ) and associated with larger performance improvements after training (Gallicchio et al, ).…”

Assessing ocular activity during performance of motor skills using electrooculography

“…By incorporating EOG methods, quiet eye research should benefit from the body of knowledge produced by psychophysiological research about expertise and performance in motor control (for review of studies, see Cooke, 2013;Hatfield et al, 2004). This interdisciplinarity should provide novel viewpoints on pressing issues, such as the efficiency paradox (Mann, Wright, & Janelle, 2016), questioning the function of a longer quiet eye when most psychomotor indices, including those of brain activity, indicate that expertise is associated with quieting of task-irrelevant activity and enhancement of task-relevant activity (e.g., Gallicchio, Cooke, & Ring, 2017). The evidence garnered here favors a more parsimonious explanation for previously identified expert-novice differences in quiet eye duration; they could simply reflect experts' better and smoother technique.…”