From Vision to Decision: The Role of Visual Attention in Elite Sports Performance

Bridging flexible goal-directed cognition and consciousness: The Goal-Aligning Representation Internal Manipulation theory

Goal-directed manipulation of internal representations is a key element of human flexible behaviour, while consciousness is commonly associated with higher-order cognition and human flexibility. Current perspectives have only partially linked these processes, thus preventing a clear understanding of how they jointly generate flexible cognition and behaviour. Moreover, these limitations prevent an effective exploitation of this knowledge for technological scopes. We propose a new theoretical perspective that extends our 'three-component theory of flexible cognition' toward higher-order cognition and consciousness, based on the systematic integration of key concepts from Cognitive Neuroscience and AI/Robotics. The theory proposes that the function of conscious processes is to support the alignment of representations with multi-level goals. This higher alignment leads to more flexible and effective behaviours. We analyse here our previous model of goal-directed flexible cognition (validated with more than 20 human populations) as a starting GARIM-inspired model. By bridging the main theories of consciousness and goal-directed behaviour, the theory has relevant implications for scientific and technological fields. In particular, it contributes to developing new experimental tasks and interpreting clinical evidence. Finally, it indicates directions for improving machine learning and robotics systems and for informing real-world applications (e.g., in digital-twin healthcare and roboethics).

Visual Performance and Sports: A Scoping Review

Vision is central to success in nearly all sports, and there is an emerging body of research investigating the links between visual abilities and athletic performance. This preregistered scoping review seeks to clarify the topics of study, methodologies used, populations under investigation, researchers, and disciplines driving this field. Systematic searches of English-language articles were conducted in PubMed and Web of Science, with additional literature identified through bibliographic searches. Six hundred sixty-seven articles published between 1976 and 2023 were identified with 547 empirical studies, 58 review articles, 20 commentaries, and 4 meta-analyses, among others. Among the empirical papers, 411 reported on visual assessments and 98 on vision training interventions. The most represented sports included baseball, soccer, basketball, and cricket, with over 150 articles reporting on professional, elite, or Olympic athletes. This scoping review describes the breadth of this emerging field, identifies its strengths and weaknesses, and provides recommendations for future improvement.

Sunglass tint does not impact the indoor catching performance of cricket fielders

Introduction

Sunglasses are worn by outdoor athletes such as cricketers for many reasons, including comfort and glare reduction, which may help to improve vision. Anecdotally they are purported to have performance-enhancing benefits, but there is a lack of evidence for this. Further, it appears that fielders are the only position in cricket who wear sunglasses. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the catching performance of fielders when wearing three different colour sunglasses tints during an indoor, laboratory-based experiment.

Methods

Twenty-one male cricketers currently playing for a university or amateur provincial teams in Makhanda, South Africa, who were non-habitual sunglass wearers, were recruited for this study. An optometrist administered pre-screening tests. Players had four testing sessions during which they wore a different colour tint at each session indoors (clear, blue, G30 (rose), and red). Players were required to catch 18 balls projected from a bowling machine. The number of balls caught, as well as the quality of the catch, was recorded. At the final session, they were asked which tint they thought was best.

Results

Pre-screening tests showed that the red lens was best for contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. During data collection, sunglass tint did not affect catching performance. The players perceived the red lens as the worst and the G30 as the best.

Discussion

It can be concluded that catching performance indoors is not affected by tint colour.

Kinematics, Kinetics and Muscle Activity Analysis during Single-leg Drop-jump Landing Followed by an Unanticipated Task: Focusing on Differences in Neurocognitive Function

Background

Lower neurocognitive function is a risk factor for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. However, the mechanism by which lower neurocognitive function increases the risk of ACL injury remains unclear.

Purpose

To clarify the effect of differences in neurocognitive function on landing mechanics during a single-leg drop-jump landing motion followed by an unanticipated task.

Study Design

Cross-sectional study.

Methods

Fifteen collegiate female athletes were recruited (20.1 ± 1.3 years, 166.6 ± 7.3 cm, 60.6 ± 6.9 kg) and were divided into two groups (the high-performance (HP) group and the lower-performance (LP) group) using the median Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) score. Three-dimensional motion analysis was employed for the analysis during the experimental task of a single-leg drop-jump followed by an unanticipated landing task from a 30-cm high box. Joint angular changes of the trunk, pelvis, hip, and knee were calculated within the interval from initial contact (IC) to 40ms. Knee and hip moments were calculated as the maximum values within the interval from IC to 40ms. Surface electromyography data from key muscles were analyzed 50ms before and after IC. Independent t-tests were used to compare the effects of different neurocognitive function on the measurement items. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results

The SDMT score was significantly higher in HP group (HP: 77.9 ± 5.5; LP: 66.0 ± 3.4; p < 0.001). The LP group had a significantly greater trunk rotation angular change to the stance leg side (HP: 0.4 ± 0.8; LP: 1.2 ± 0.4; p = 0.020). There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of joint moments, and muscle activities.

Conclusion

Differences in neurocognitive function by SDMT were found to be related to differences in motor strategies of the trunk in the horizontal plane. Although trunk motion in the sagittal and frontal planes during single-leg drop-jump landing increases the ACL injury risk by affecting knee joint motion, the effect of trunk motion in the horizontal plane remains unclear.

Level of Evidence

3© The Authors.

Topical Review: Optometric Considerations in Sports vs. E-Sports

Electronic sports (e-sports) have recently emerged to become a rapidly growing form of videogame competition, requiring gamers to spend many hours in front of a visual display. The nature of this new modality raises important considerations for ocular health, and visual and perceptual functioning, compared to traditional sports. In general, sports performance has been associated with open spaces, gross motor movement, and balance, while electronic sports require visual and attentional stamina at near distances with fine motor control. From an optometric viewpoint, visual perception is specific to both the sports modality and the environment where sports take place. In this topical review, we consider e-sport optometric factors such as screen time and digital eyestrain, visual skill demands, and perceptual cognitive skills such as visual attention. We compare training considerations for traditional sports and training in gaming platforms, with recommendations for future research in this growing modality. The goal of this review is to raise awareness of the various elements to consider when providing vision care to e-sport participants.

Topical Review: Visual Performance Assessments for Sport

SIGNIFICANCE

Eye care professionals seek to provide effective vision care for a variety of patient needs, including performance in sports and recreational pursuits. This review provides an analysis of common visual performance assessments, including summaries of recent clinical research from a diverse array of professional literature.Vision is recognized as an important element of sports performance. Elite athletes frequently demonstrate exceptional abilities to see and respond effectively in sports competition. Which visual factors are important and how to most effectively assess visual performance are the sources of much debate. This topical review presents an evidence-based review of the common visual performance factors assessed in athletes, beginning with guidance for conducting a visual task analysis for the variety of sports that athlete patients may compete in. An information processing model is used to provide a framework for understanding the contributions of the many visual performance factors used during sports.

Effects of visual training on motor performance in young tennis players using FitLight Trainer

BACKGROUND

Tennis is an open-skill sport in which the athletes have a short period of time to elaborate all the information coming from the surrounding environment and produce a motor answer based on them. The aim of this study was divided in two hypotheses: (1) to assess if belonging to a certain category, athlete or non-athlete, older or younger, can affect the development of reaction time on children and (2) if a protocol based on visual training (VT) of 6 weeks could improve the motor performance on the field in young tennis players using FitLight Trainer.

METHODS

In this evidence a group of young children (N=40) have been tested on light board through reaction test then some young tennis players (N=15, age: 7-12 years old) were taken as reference for the second hypothesis. They were divided in two groups: 7 of them were in the group Under-10 (U10) while 8 in a second group (U12). They performed a VT protocol once a week for at least 40 minutes for 6 weeks. They were tested at baseline (T0) and follow-up (T6) to evaluate the reaction time, time in specific lateral shift and precision about forehand and backhand.

RESULTS

The development of reaction time of the athletes is principally caused by their growth (p<0.05). Principal components analysis (PCA) showed significant improvements in the Under-10 category in all of the tests while in the Under-12 category not every individual showed a significant result in terms of performance.

CONCLUSIONS

The developing of reaction time and coordination eye-hand is mainly due to the growth of young athletes. Also, performing a 6-week VT using FitLight Trainer is possible improve the reaction time and the motor performance on the field especially in young tennis players under 10 years old.

The influence of decision making and divided attention on lower limb biomechanics associated with anterior cruciate ligament injury: a narrative review

Cognitive loads have been shown to influence anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk. Two main sources of cognitive loads that athletes experience are decision making and dividing attention between multiple tasks. The aim of this paper was to review previous studies examining the effects of decision making and divided attention on lower limb biomechanics during landing and cutting. Previous research has shown decision making to significantly influence a number of biomechanical variables associated with increased risk of ACL injury, such as reduced knee flexion at initial contact, increased knee valgus angles, increased knee extension moment and increased knee valgus moment in decision-making tasks compared to pre-planned tasks. Furthermore, dividing attention between multiple tasks has been shown to result in reduced knee flexion at initial contact, increased vertical ground reaction force, and reduced stability during landing/cutting. The changes in lower limb biomechanics observed as a result of both decision making and dividing attention are likely due to a reduced ability to anticipate ground contact and implement protective movement patterns associated with reduced ACL loading. Collectively, these findings emphasise the need for tasks that incorporate decision making and divided attention when investigating ACL injury mechanisms and developing ACL injury risk screening assessments.

Perceptual vision training in non-sport-specific context: effect on performance skills and cognition in young females

Although an increasing interest in vision training for sport performance, whether it may have a transfer to sport-specific skills and whether such transfer could be mediated by cognition remain open issues. To enlighten this point, we tested the effect of 6-weeks sport vision training programmes (requiring generic or volleyball-specific motor actions) in non-sport-specific context compared to a third group performing traditional volleyball training in sport-specific context. Fifty-one female volleyball players were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Before and after training period subjects were tested on accuracy of volleyball-specific skills and cognitive performance (clinical reaction time, executive control, perceptual speed). Accuracy of volleyball-specific skills improved after traditional volleyball training with respect to the vision training groups. Conversely, vision training groups improved cognitive performance (clinical reaction time, executive control and perceptual speed), as compared to traditional volleyball training group. Our results have shown that vision training in non-sport-specific context (both generic or with specific motor actions) improved cognitive performance, but seems to be less effective for improving sport-specific skills. These evidences suggest that environment in which exercises were performed plays a key role to improve perception and action in sport-specific skills, supporting the ecological approach to sport learning.

Early Trajectory Prediction in Elite Athletes

Cerebellar plasticity is a critical mechanism for optimal feedback control. While Purkinje cell activity of the oculomotor vermis predicts eye movement speed and direction, more lateral areas of the cerebellum may play a role in more complex tasks, including decision-making. It is still under question how this motor-cognitive functional dichotomy between medial and lateral areas of the cerebellum plays a role in optimal feedback control. Here we show that elite athletes subjected to a trajectory prediction, go/no-go task manifest superior subsecond trajectory prediction accompanied by optimal eye movements and changes in cognitive load dynamics. Moreover, while interacting with the cerebral cortex, both the medial and lateral cerebellar networks are prominently activated during the fast feedback stage of the task, regardless of whether or not a motor response was required for the correct response. Our results show that cortico-cerebellar interactions are widespread during dynamic feedback and that experience can result in superior task-specific decision skills.

Revised Approach to the Role of Fatigue in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Prevention: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses

BACKGROUND

Causes of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are multifactorial. Anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention should thus be approached from a multifactorial perspective as well. Training to resist fatigue is an underestimated aspect of prevention programs given that the presence of fatigue may play a crucial role in sustaining an ACL injury.

OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this literature review was to summarize research findings relating to the kinematic and kinetic effects of fatigue on single-leg landing tasks through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Other objectives were to critically appraise current approaches to examine the effects of fatigue together with elucidating and proposing an optimized approach for measuring the role of fatigue in ACL injury prevention.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was conducted in the databases PubMed (1978-November 2017), CINAHL (1992-November 2017), and EMBASE (1973-November 2017). The inclusion criteria were: (1) full text, (2) published in English, German, or Dutch, (3) healthy subjects, (4) average age ≥ 18 years, (5) single-leg jump landing task, (6) evaluation of the kinematics and/or kinetics of the lower extremities before and after a fatigue protocol, and (7) presentation of numerical kinematic and/or kinetic data. Participants included healthy subjects who underwent a fatigue protocol and in whom the effects of pre- and post-fatigue on three-dimensional lower extremity kinematic and kinetics were compared. Methods of data collection, patient selection, blinding, prevention of verification bias, and study design were independently assessed.

RESULTS

Twenty studies were included, in which four types of single-leg tasks were examined: the single-leg drop vertical jump, the single-leg drop landing, the single-leg hop for distance, and sidestep cutting. Fatigue seemed to mostly affect initial contact (decreased angles post-fatigue) and peak (increased angles post-fatigue) hip and knee flexion. Sagittal plane variables at initial contact were mostly affected under the single-leg hop for distance and sidestep cutting conditions whilst peak angles were affected during the single-leg drop jump.

CONCLUSIONS

Training to resist fatigue is an underestimated aspect of prevention programs given that the presence of fatigue may play a crucial role in sustaining an ACL injury. Considering the small number of variables affected after fatigue, the question arises whether the same fatigue pathways are affected by the fatigue protocols used in the included laboratory studies as are experienced on the sports field.

Decision Making Influences Tibial Impact Accelerations During Lateral Cutting

Lower-extremity musculoskeletal injuries are common in sports such as basketball and soccer. Athletes competing in sports of this nature must maneuver in response to the actions of their teammates, opponents, etc. This limits their ability to preplan movements. The purpose of this study was to compare impact accelerations during preplanned versus unplanned lateral cutting. A total of 30 subjects (15 males and 15 females) performed preplanned and unplanned cuts while the authors analyzed impact accelerations using an accelerometer secured to their tibia. For the preplanned condition, subjects were aware of the movement to perform before initiating a trial. For the unplanned condition, subjects initiated their movement and then reacted to the illumination of one of 3 visual stimuli which dictated whether they would cut, land, or land-and-jump. A mixed-model analysis of variance with a between factor of sex (male and female) and a within factor of condition (preplanned and unplanned) was used to analyze the magnitude and variability of the impact accelerations for the cutting trials. Both males and females demonstrated higher impact accelerations (P = .01) and a trend toward greater intertrial variability (P = .07) for the unplanned cutting trials (vs preplanned cuts). Unplanned cutting may place greater demands on the musculoskeletal system.

Sensorimotor abilities predict on-field performance in professional baseball

Baseball players must be able to see and react in an instant, yet it is hotly debated whether superior performance is associated with superior sensorimotor abilities. In this study, we compare sensorimotor abilities, measured through 8 psychomotor tasks comprising the Nike Sensory Station assessment battery, and game statistics in a sample of 252 professional baseball players to evaluate the links between sensorimotor skills and on-field performance. For this purpose, we develop a series of Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models enabling us to compare statistics across professional baseball leagues. Within this framework, we find that sensorimotor abilities are significant predictors of on-base percentage, walk rate and strikeout rate, accounting for age, position, and league. We find no such relationship for either slugging percentage or fielder-independent pitching. The pattern of results suggests performance contributions from both visual-sensory and visual-motor abilities and indicates that sensorimotor screenings may be useful for player scouting.

Visual efficiency among teenaged athletes and non-athletes

AIM

To compare visual efficiency, specifically accom-modation, vergence, and oculomotor functions among athletes and non-athletes.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study on sports vision screening was used to evaluate the visual skills of 214 elementary students (107 athletes, 107 non-athletes), aged between 13 and 16y. The visual screening assessed visual parameters such as ocular motor alignment, accommodation, and vergence functions.

RESULTS

Mean visual parameters were compared between age-group matched athletes (mean age 14.82±0.98y) and non-athletes (mean age 15.00±1.04y). The refractive errors of all participants were corrected to maximal attainable best corrected visual acuity of logMAR 0.0. Accommodation function assessment evaluated amplitude of accommodation and accommodation facility. Vergence functions measured the near point of convergence, vergence facility, and distance fusional vergence at break and recovery point. Ocular motor alignment was not statistically significant between both groups. Athletes had a statistically significant amplitude of accommodation for both the right eye (t=2.30, P=0.02) and the left eye (t=1.99, P=0.05). Conversely, non-athletes had better accommodation facility (t=-2.54, P=0.01) and near point of convergence (t=4.39, P<0.001) when compared to athletes. Vergence facility was found to be better among athletes (t=2.47, P=0.01). Nevertheless, non-athletes were significantly better for both distance negative and positive fusional vergence.

CONCLUSION

Although the findings are still inconclusive as to whether athletes had superior visual skills as compared to non-athletes, it remains important to identify and elucidate the key visual skills needed by athletes in order for them to achieve higher performance in their sports.

Impact of Ramadan intermittent fasting on cognitive function in trained cyclists: a pilot study

This study assessed selected measures of cognitive function in trained cyclists who observed daylight fasting during Ramadan. Eleven cyclists volunteered to participate (age: 21.6±4.8 years, VO2max: 57.7±5.6 ml kg(-1)·min(-1)) and were followed for 2 months. Cognitive function (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), Reaction Time index (RTI) and Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP) tests) and sleep architecture (ambulatory EEG) were assessed: before Ramadan (BR), in the 1st week (RA1) and 4th week of Ramadan (RA4), and 2 weeks post-Ramadan (PR). Both cognitive tests were performed twice per day: before and after Ramadan at 8-10 a.m. and 4-6 p.m., and during Ramadan at 4-6 p.m. and 0-2 a.m., respectively. Training load (TL) by the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) method and wellness (Hooper index) were measured daily. If the TL increased over the study period, this variable was stable during Ramadan. The perceived fatigue and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) increased at RA4. Sleep patterns and architecture showed clear disturbances, with significant increases in the number of awakenings and light sleep durations during Ramadan (RA1 and RA4), together with decreased durations of deep and REM sleep stages at PR. RTI (simple and multiple reaction index) reaction and movement times did not vary over the study period. The RVP test showed reduced false alarms during Ramadan, suggesting reduced impulsivity. Overall accuracy significantly increased at RA1, RA4 and PR compared to baseline. At RA4, the accuracy was higher at 0-2 a.m. compared to 4-6 p.m. Despite the observed disturbances in sleep architecture, Ramadan fasting did not negatively impact the cognitive performance of trained cyclists from the Middle East.

The effect of retinal defocus on simple eye-hand and eye-foot reaction time in traumatic brain injury (TBI)

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the experiment was to assess the effect of retinal defocus on simple eye-hand (E-H) and eye-foot (E-F) reaction time (RT) in traumatic brain injury (TBI).

DESIGN AND METHODS

Sixteen subjects with traumatic brain injury (five males and 11 females; aged 22-34 years) participated in the experiment. These were compared with 16 visually-normal, age/gender-match subjects. Retinal defocus was introduced optically (plano, +1, +2, +3, +4, +10D and +2D × 90) in the spectacle plane with binocular viewing. E-H and E-F RT were assessed binocularly using the RT-2S Simple Reaction Time Tester (Advanced Therapy Products, Glen Allen, VA). The test target colour and angular subtense simulated a conventional red/green traffic signal at 120 feet.

RESULTS

There was no significant effect (p > 0.05) of retinal defocus on either E-H or E-F RT in each population. There was a significant effect (p < 0.05) of TBI on both E-H and E-F RT as compared with the normative data, with it being longer and more variable in TBI. Each RT condition was longest in those with moderate TBI.

CONCLUSIONS

Both RTs were robust to retinal defocus, thus suggesting central nervous system insensitivity for this simple RT task. However, the increased RTs and related variability found in TBI, especially in moderate TBI, have potential safety implications (e.g. driving a car, ambulating).

Temporal preparation in athletes: a comparison of tennis players and swimmers with sedentary controls

The authors aimed to investigate the effects of different sporting experience on nonspecific temporal preparation. They evaluated temporal preparation in tennis players (an open-skill sport) and their athletic (swimmers, a closed skill-sport) and nonathletic (sedentary students) controls using a go/no-go variable foreperiod paradigm in which one simple condition and two go/no-go conditions (central-go and mixed-go) were included, which can be used to study the temporal aspects of nonspecific preparation with decision making in inhibition with different levels of cognitive load. Tennis players responded faster than nonathletic controls while there was no significant difference relative to the athletic controls. Additionally, the main finding of the present study is that the difference in reaction time between tennis players and nonathletic controls was found selectively for short foreperiods in which temporal uncertainty is higher and less temporal preparation can occur. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed that superior temporal preparation was positively associated with enhanced go/no-go decision making in the higher difficulty condition. Our findings are consistent with tennis players showing superior temporal processing. The absence of a significant effect in athletic controls suggests that there is a specific benefit from tennis training and indicates that temporal preparation may be susceptible to modulation by fitness and appropriate training.