Action anticipation beyond the action observation network: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in expert basketball players

Neuroimaging and perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport: A narrative review of research and future directions

Perceptual-cognitive expertise is crucial in domains that require rapid extraction of information for anticipation (e.g., sport, aviation, warfighting). Yet, published reports on the neuroscience of perceptual-cognitive expertise in such dynamic performance environments focus almost exclusively on biological motion processing (i.e., action observation network), leaving gaps in knowledge about the neural mechanisms underlying other frequently cited perceptual-cognitive skills, such as pattern recognition, the use of contextual priors, and global processing. In this paper, we provide a narrative review of research on the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport, a domain where individuals possess highly specialized perceptual-cognitive skills (i.e., expertise) that enable successful performance in dynamic environments. Additionally, we discuss how work from domains with more static, predictable stimuli for perception and decision-making (e.g., radiology, chess) can enhance understanding of the neuroscience of expertise in sport. In future, efforts are needed to address the neural mechanisms underpinning less studied perceptual-cognitive skills (i.e., pattern recognition, contextual priors, global processing) and to explore how experts prioritize these skills within different contexts, thereby enhancing our understanding of perceptual-cognitive expertise across numerous professional domains.

Enhancing motor imagery practice using synchronous action observation

In this paper, we discuss a variety of ways in which practising motor actions by means of motor imagery (MI) can be enhanced via synchronous action observation (AO), that is, by AO + MI. We review the available research on the (mostly facilitatory) behavioural effects of AO + MI practice in the early stages of skill acquisition, discuss possible theoretical explanations, and consider several issues related to the choice and presentation schedules of suitable models. We then discuss considerations related to AO + MI practice at advanced skill levels, including expertise effects, practical recommendations such as focussing attention on specific aspects of the observed action, using just-ahead models, and possible effects of the perspective in which the observed action is presented. In section "Coordinative AO + MI", we consider scenarios where the observer imagines performing an action that complements or responds to the observed action, as a promising and yet under-researched application of AO + MI training. In section "The dual action simulation hypothesis of AO + MI", we review the neurocognitive hypothesis that AO + MI practice involves two parallel action simulations, and we consider opportunities for future research based on recent neuroimaging work on parallel motor representations. In section "AO + MI training in motor rehabilitation", we review applications of AO, MI, and AO + MI training in the field of neurorehabilitation. Taken together, this evidence-based, exploratory review opens a variety of avenues for future research and applications of AO + MI practice, highlighting several clear advantages over the approaches of purely AO- or MI-based practice.

Effector-specific improvements in action prediction in left-handed individuals after short-term physical practice

Research has established the influence of short-term physical practice for enhancing action prediction in right-handed (RH) individuals. In addition to benefits of physical practice for these later assessed perceptual-cognitive skills, effector-specific interference has been shown through action-incongruent secondary tasks (motor interference tasks). Here we investigated this experience-driven facilitation of action predictions and effector-specific interference in left-handed (LH) novices, before and after practicing a dart throwing task. Participants watched either RH (n = 19) or LH (n = 24) videos of temporally occluded dart throws, across a control condition and three secondary-task conditions: tone-monitoring, RH or LH force monitoring. These conditions were completed before and after physical practice throwing with the LH. Significantly greater improvement in prediction accuracy was shown post-practice for the LH- versus RH-video group. Consistent with previous work, effector-specific interference was shown, exclusive to the LH-video group. Only when doing the LH force monitoring task did the LH-video group show secondary task interference in prediction accuracy. These data support the idea that short-term physical practice resulted in the development of an effector-specific motor representation. The results are also consistent with other work in RH individuals (showing RH motor interference) and hence rule out the interpretation that these effector specific effects are due to the disruption of more generalized motor processes, thought to be lateralized to the left-hemisphere of the brain.

The Impact of Skill Level on the Integration of Information and Post-Error Adjustment during Action Anticipation in Basketball

The present study examined the impact of skill level on the integration of contextual prior information and kinematic information alongside post-error adjustment during action anticipation in basketball. Twenty-three collegiate basketball players and twenty-three control participants engaged in anticipating as quickly and accurately as possible the outcomes of free throws, utilizing video clips depicting basketball players' actions, both with and without contextual prior information. Anticipatory performance and the difference in anticipatory performance following errors and correct responses were analyzed based on skill level and the congruency of contextual prior information (none, congruent, and incongruent). The findings revealed that the congruency of contextual prior information significantly affects action anticipation, with skill level moderating this effect. Moreover, skill level influenced the congruency effect on accuracy discrepancies between post-error and post-correct trials during action anticipation, with controls showing greater sensitivity to previous trial performance compared to experts. These results provide further evidence for the notion that individuals employ Bayesian reliability-based strategies to integrate different information sources and underscore the role of skill level in adjusting anticipatory judgments following errors during action anticipation. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that differentiate skill levels in action anticipation, potentially guiding the development of targeted training interventions.

Mechanisms of Action Anticipation in Table Tennis Players: A Multivoxel Pattern Analysis Study

An exceptional ability to accurately anticipate an opponent's action is paramount for competitive athletes and highlights their experiential mastery. Despite conventional associations of action observation with specific brain regions, neuroimaging discrepancies persist. To explore the brain regions and neural mechanisms undergirding action anticipation, we compared distinct brain activation patterns involved in table tennis serve anticipation of expert table tennis athletes vs. non-experts by using both univariate analysis and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA). We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 29 table tennis experts and 34 non-experts as they pressed a button to predict the trajectory of a ball in a table tennis serve video truncated at the moment of racket-ball contact vs. pressing any button while viewing a static image of the first video frame. MVPA was applied to assess whether it could accurately differentiate experts from non-experts. MVPA results indicated moderate accuracy (90.48%) for differentiating experts from non-experts. Brain regions contributing most to the differentiation included the left cerebellum, the vermis, the right middle temporal pole, the inferior parietal cortex, the bilateral paracentral lobule, and the left supplementary motor area. The findings suggest that brain regions associated with cognitive conflict monitoring and motor cognition contribute to the action anticipation ability of expert table tennis players.

Directed causal effect with PCMCI in hyperscanning EEG time series

Social activities are likely to cause effects or reactivity in the brains of the people involved in collaborative social situations. This study assesses a new method, Tigramite, for time domain analysis of directed causality between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of persons in such situations. An experimental situation using hyperscanning EEG was applied while individuals led and followed each other in finger-tapping rhythms. This structured task has a long duration and a high likelihood of inter-brain causal reactions in the prefrontal cortices. Tigramite is a graph-based causal discovery method to identify directed causal relationships in observational time series. Tigramite was used to analyze directed causal connections within and between the PFC. Significantly directed causality within and between brains could be detected during the social interactions. This is the first empirical evidence the Tigramite can reveal inter- and intra-brain-directed causal effects in hyperscanning EEG time series. The findings are promising for further studies of causality in neural networks during social activities using Tigramite on EEG in the time domain.

Influence of sport expertise in facilitating and inhibiting the recognition of the opponent's intentions in sailing

Starting from the proposed role of the mirror neuron system in the recognition of the intention underlying the actions of others, an experimental paradigm was implemented to test the role of sailing motor expertise in predicting the outcome of a competitor's action. It was hypothesized that subjects with experience in sailing would correctly interpret the maneuver performed due to the activation of domain specific motor representations of the same movements and that subjects who practiced a sport different from sailing would perform worse because of the activation of irrelevant motor patterns. For doing so, a series of video clips, in which a professional sailor performed a tack or a feint, have been manipulated so that the video clips would stop at the moment of the dunkin, namely, when the boat acquires speed to tack or continue straight ahead. The task consisted in predicting whether the action following the dunkin was an actual tack or a feint. The performance of 87 subjects, divided into three subgroups (sailors, tennis players, sedentary), was evaluated in terms of accuracy in identifying the sailor's intentions and correlated to age, gender, manual dominance, education, job, hours spent weekly playing videogames, and experience in playing sports. Results showed that the percentage of correct identifications of the intention to do a tack or feint was the highest in the group of sailors and the lowest in tennis players. An inverse relation between tennis experience and ability in recognizing the sailor's intention was found in the group of tennis players. Gender, age, manual dominance, education, job, and experience with videogames were not found to be correlated with performance. Findings support the possible implication of the mirror neuron system in maneuver detection in sailing and may be a starting point for the development of psychological training in this sport.

Total sleep deprivation reduces the table tennis anticipation performance of young men: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

This study explored whether and how sleep deprivation (SD) affects sport-related anticipation. Twenty table tennis players and 28 non-athletes completed a table tennis anticipation task before and after 36 h SD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired simultaneously. The results showed that, compared with the non-athletes, table tennis players had higher neural efficiency, manifested by their higher anticipation accuracy and lower frontal lobe activation. SD impaired anticipation performance, accompanied by decreased activation of the occipital and temporal lobes. Compensatory activation occurred in the left hippocampus and orbital part of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) after SD in the table tennis player group, but not in the non-athlete group. The decreased accuracy of non-athletes was positively correlated with decreased activation of orbital part of the right IFG. This study's findings improve the understanding of the cognitive neuroscience mechanisms by which SD affects sport-related anticipation.

Sensorimotor expertise influences perceptual weight judgments during observation of a sport-specific gesture

This study aimed to investigate the role of sensorimotor expertise in evaluating relative weight of a lifted object during the observation of a sport-specific gesture, namely the deadlift. Fifty-six participants, assigned to three groups according to their experience in weight lifting, powerlifters, CrossFit® practitioners and naïve participants (controls), performed a perceptual weight judgments task. Participants observed videos showing a powerlifter executing a deadlift at the 80%, 90% and 100% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM) and answered a question about the weight of the lifted object. Participants' response accuracy and variability were evaluated. Findings showed that powerlifters were more accurate than controls. No differences appeared between powerlifter and CrossFit® practitioners, and between CrossFit® practitioners and controls. Response variability was similar in the three groups. These findings suggest that a fine sensorimotor expertise specific for the observed gesture is crucial to detect the weight of the object displayed in the observed movement, since it might allow detecting small changes in the observed movement kinematics, which we speculate are at the basis of the object weight recognition.

Strike or ball? Batters know it better: an fMRI study of action anticipation in baseball players

To assess whether the brain processes of action anticipation are modulated differently by perceptual and motor experiences, baseball batters, pitchers, and non-players were asked to predict the fate of pitching actions (strike or ball) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed both batters (perceptual experts of pitching action) and pitchers (motor experts) were more accurate than non-players. Furthermore, batters demonstrated higher perceptual sensitivity in discriminating strikes than non-players. All groups engaged the action observation network, putamen, and cerebellum during anticipation, while pitchers showed higher activity than non-players in the left premotor cortex, which has been implicated in the internal simulation of observed action. Only batters exhibited differences in strike versus ball pitches in their left ventral extrastriate cortex, which might be associated with the processing of relevant visual information conveyed by the observed pitcher's movement kinematics and pitch trajectory. Moreover, all groups showed higher activity selectively in the striatum, thalamus, sensorimotor cortices, and cerebellum during correct predictions than during incorrect ones, with most widespread activation in batters, reinforcing the greater involvement of the sensorimotor system in perceptual experience. Our findings demonstrate that perceptual experience might enhance action anticipation ability to a greater extent than motor experience, with overlapping but specific neural underpinnings.

The effects of domain knowledge and event structure on event processing

Research suggests that domain knowledge facilitates memory for domain-specific information through two mechanisms: differentiation, which involves the ability to identify meaningful, fine-grained details within a sequence, and unitization, which involves binding individual components from a sequence into functional wholes. This study investigated the extent to which individuals engaged in differentiation and unitization when parsing continuous events into discrete, meaningful units (i.e., event segmentation) and recalling them. Participants watched and segmented basketball videos. They then rewatched the videos and provided descriptions afterward. Videos were coded for the presence of higher order goals (A2 actions) and the individual sub-actions that comprised them (A1 actions). Results suggested that event segmentation behavior for participants with less knowledge was more aligned with changes in basic actions (A1 actions) than for participants with greater knowledge. When describing events, participants with greater knowledge were more likely than participants with less knowledge to use statements that reflected unitization.

Beyond passive observation: feedback anticipation and observation activate the mirror system in virtual finger movement control via P300-BCI

Action observation (AO) is widely used as a post-stroke therapy to activate sensorimotor circuits through the mirror neuron system. However, passive observation is often considered to be less effective and less interactive than goal-directed movement observation, leading to the suggestion that observation of goal-directed actions may have stronger therapeutic potential, as goal-directed AO has been shown to activate mechanisms for monitoring action errors. Some studies have also suggested the use of AO as a form of Brain-computer interface (BCI) feedback. In this study, we investigated the potential for observation of virtual hand movements within a P300-based BCI as a feedback system to activate the mirror neuron system. We also explored the role of feedback anticipation and estimation mechanisms during movement observation. Twenty healthy subjects participated in the study. We analyzed event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/S) of sensorimotor EEG rhythms and Error-related potentials (ErrPs) during observation of virtual hand finger flexion presented as feedback in the P300-BCI loop and compared the dynamics of ERD/S and ErrPs during observation of correct feedback and errors. We also analyzed these EEG markers during passive AO under two conditions: when subjects anticipated the action demonstration and when the action was unexpected. A pre-action mu-ERD was found both before passive AO and during action anticipation within the BCI loop. Furthermore, a significant increase in beta-ERS was found during AO within incorrect BCI feedback trials. We suggest that the BCI feedback may exaggerate the passive-AO effect, as it engages feedback anticipation and estimation mechanisms as well as movement error monitoring simultaneously. The results of this study provide insights into the potential of P300-BCI with AO-feedback as a tool for neurorehabilitation.

The Adverse Effect of Anxiety on Dynamic Anticipation Performance

Anticipation is a crucial perceptual-cognitive skill in fast-ball sports, and the effect of high anxiety on performance has attracted more attention from sports psychologists. Related studies mainly focus on the effect of anxiety on influencing processing efficiency and attentional control (top-down vs. bottom-up) during information processing in sport. Attentional Control Theory (ACT) has been supported by several studies. However, these studies have been criticized by the low ecological validity of task design, such as neglecting the dynamic process of anticipation, and inadequate performance analysis, such as analyzing response accuracy and time separately. Using temporal occlusion paradigm, we tested ACT in a dynamic anticipation process. Eighteen skilled and eighteen less-skilled table tennis players were required to anticipate the serves of opponents under dynamic task constraints (early vs. late occlusion) and anxiety conditions (high vs. low anxiety). High cognitive state anxiety decreased processing efficiency (response time/response accuracy) for both groups whereas performance effectiveness (response accuracy) did not differ. In addition, it negatively affected processing efficiency in early anticipation compared with late anticipation tasks, suggesting that high cognitive state anxiety may have a greater impact on top-down attentional control. Our findings provide support for ACT and show that anxiety impairs anticipation efficiency and performance, possibly due to an ineffectively attentional shift from external kinematic cues to internal long-term working memory. Findings also have implications for the adaptation of attentional strategies and anxiolytic training.

Can Stephen Curry really know?-Conscious access to outcome prediction of motor actions

The NBA player Stephen Curry has a habit of turning away from the basket right after taking three-point shots even before the ball reaches the basket, suggesting that he can reliably predict whether the just released shot will hit or not. In order to use this "knowledge" to deliberately decide which action to take next, Stephen Curry needs conscious access to the results of internal processes of outcome prediction and valuation. In general, computational simulations and empirical data suggest that the quality of such internal predictions is related to motor skill level. Whether the results of internal predictions can reliably be consciously accessed, however, is less clear. In the current study, 30 participants each practiced a virtual goal-oriented throwing task for 1000 trials. Every second trial, they were required to verbally predict the success of the current throw. Results showed that on average, verbal prediction accuracy was above an individually computed chance level, taking into account individual success rates and response strategies. Furthermore, prediction accuracy was related to task skill level. Participants with better performances predicted the success of their throws more accurately than participants with poorer performances. For the poorer performing individuals, movement execution was negatively affected when the verbalized predictions were required. They also showed no noticeable modulation of speech characteristics (response latency) for correct and incorrect predictions as observed in the high performers.

Recognition capability of one's own skilled movement is dissociated from acquisition of motor skill memory

When we have rehearsed a movement using an object, we can reproduce the movement without holding the object. However, the reproduced movement sometimes differs from the movement holding a real object, likely because movement recognition is inaccurate. In the present study, we tested whether the recognition capability was dissociated from the acquisition of motor skill memory. Twelve novices were asked to rotate two balls with their right hand as quickly as possible; they practiced the task for 29 days. To evaluate recognition capability, we calculated the difference in coordination pattern of all five digits between the ball-rotation movement and the reproduced movement without holding balls. The recognition capability did not change within the first day, but improved after one week of practice. On the other hand, performance of the ball rotation significantly improved within the first day. Since improvement of performance is likely associated with acquisition of motor skill memory, we suggest that recognition capability, which reflects the capability to cognitively access motor skill memory, was dissociated from the acquisition of motor skill memory. Therefore, recognition of one’s own skilled movement would rely on a hierarchical structure of acquisition of motor skill memory and cognitive access to that memory.

Frontoparietal, Cerebellum Network Codes for Accurate Intention Prediction in Altered Perceptual Conditions

Integrating and predicting the intentions and actions of others are critical components of social interactions, but the behavioral and neural bases of such mechanisms under altered perceptual conditions are poorly understood. In the present study, we recruited expert violinists and age-matched controls with no musical training and asked them to evaluate simplified dynamic stimuli of violinists playing in a piano or forte communicative intent while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We show that expertise is needed to successfully understand and evaluate communicative intentions in spatially and temporally altered visual representations of musical performance. Frontoparietal regions-such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the inferior parietal lobule and sulcus-and various subregions of the cerebellum-such as cerebellar lobules I-IV, V, VI, VIIb, VIIIa, X-a re recruited in the process. Functional connectivity between these brain areas reveals widespread organization, particularly in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal sulcus, and in the cerebellum. This network may be essential to successfully assess communicative intent in ambiguous or complex visual scenes.

Impacts of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Action Observation Network and Sports Anticipation Task

Effective anticipation skills in sporting cognition have been shown to facilitate expertise in sports. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown to improve motor and cognitive functioning. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the assistive effects of tDCS on the action observer network in both novice and expert gamers during an occlusion task, as well as the related electroencephalographic spectral power response. Twenty-three novice and 23 expert video gamers received either sham or active tDCS with a right parietal anode and left frontal cathode. Only experts demonstrated a significant improvement in predicting ball direction for the overall and early occlusions after tDCS. Spectral power results revealed significant changes in theta, high-gamma, and delta frequencies. The findings indicate that tDCS was able to modulate anticipatory behavior and cortical activity in experts compared with novice participants, suggesting a facilitatory role for tDCS to improve anticipatory effects and assist as a neurocognitive training technique.

Decision-Making Skills in Youth Basketball Players: Diagnostic and External Validation of a Video-Based Assessment

Decision-making is a central skill of basketball players intending to excel individually and contribute to their teams’ success. The assessment of such skills is particularly challenging in complex team sports. To address this challenge, this study aimed to conceptualize a reliable and valid video-based decision-making assessment in youth basketball. The study sample comprised youth basketball players of the German U16 national team (n = 17; M_Age = 16.01 ± 0.25 years) and students of a sports class (n = 17; M_Age = 15.73 ± 0.35 years). Diagnostic validity was tested by determination of the performance levels according to response accuracy as well as response time in the assessment. External validity was examined by investigation of the correlation between the diagnostic results of the elite athletes and their real game performance data associated with passing skills. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the diagnostic results discriminate between performance levels (χ²(2) = 20.39, p < 0.001, Nagelkerke’s R² = 0.60). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between the diagnostic results and assists (F(2,10) = 4.82, p < 0.05; R² = 0.49) as well as turnovers per game (F(2,10) = 5.23, p < 0.05; R² = 0.51). However, no relationship was detected regarding the assist-turnover ratio. Further, response time discriminated within the elite athletes’ performance data but not between performance levels while for response accuracy the opposite is the case. The results confirm the diagnostic and external validity of the assessment and indicate its applicability to investigate decision-making skills in youth basketball.

Empatía y Teoría de la Mente: comparación entre deportistas y no deportistas

Objetivo. Comparar la dimensión de cognición social de la Teoría de la Mente (ToM, por sus siglas en inglés) y la empatía entre deportistas y no deportistas. Método. Se ejecutó un diseño transversal con muestreo intencional, en el que 46 deportistas (Medad = 18.2, DE = 4.5) y 48 no deportistas (Medad = 20.2, DE = 3.5) completaron la Tarea de Empatía por el Dolor y el Test de las Miradas. Resultados. No se hallaron diferencias en la ToM, t(92) = 1.21, p = 0.228, d = 0.25. El Anova factorial mixto 3x2 indicó que el comportamiento de empatía es homogéneo por las condiciones (neutral, accidental e intencional) y grupos (deportistas vs no deportistas), F(2, 92) = 0.127, p = 0.881, ηp2 = 0.001. Sin embargo, la comparación de medias mostró diferencias favorables para deportistas en la condición de estímulos neutrales (p < 0.05). Conclusión. No hay variabilidad de la ToM, ni en las condiciones de accidentalidad e intencionalidad en el aspecto empático; mientras que en estímulos neutrales, el promedio difiere favorablemente para los deportistas.

Implicit visual sensitivity towards slim versus overweight bodies modulates motor resonance in the primary motor cortex: A tDCS study

Motor resonance (MR) can be influenced by individual differences and similarity in the physical appearance between the actor and observer. Recently, we reported that action simulation is modulated by an implicit visual sensitivity towards normal-weight compared with overweight bodies. Furthermore, recent research has suggested the existence of an action observation network responsible for MR, with limited evidence whether the primary motor cortex (M1) is part of this. We expanded our previous findings with regards to the role of an implicit normal-weight-body preference in the MR mechanism. At the same time, we tested the functional relevance of M1 to MR, by using a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocol. Seventeen normal-weight and 17 overweight participants were asked to observe normal-weight or overweight actors reaching and grasping a light or heavy cube, and then, at the end of each video-clip to indicate the correct cube weight. Before the task, all participants received 15 min of sham or cathodal tDCS over the left M1. Measures of anti-fat attitudes were also collected. During sham tDCS, all participants were better in simulating the actions performed by normal-weight compared with overweight models. Surprisingly, cathodal tDCS selectively improved the ability in the overweight group to simulate actions performed by the overweight models. This effect was not associated with scores of fat phobic attitudes or implicit anti-fat bias. Our findings are discussed in the context of relevance of M1 to MR and its social modulation by anti-fat attitudes.

Nonlinear engagement of action observation network underlying action anticipation in players with different levels of expertise

The goal of this study was to reconcile inconsistency of neural engagement underlying action anticipation between experts and nonexperts, as well as between correct and incorrect anticipations. Therefore, we asked novice, intermediate, and skilled baseball batters (N, IB, and SB) to anticipate their swing decisions in response to pitching videos of a strike or ball, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Behavioral results confirmed the effect of expertise that is generally shown in a linear fashion. Imaging results instead revealed a nonlinear relationship between expertise level and the evoked response amplitude of nodes within the action observation network. The relationship was best captured by an inverted U‐shaped quadratic response profile across the three groups such that IB exhibited higher activation than did both SB and N. These empirical findings extend the framework of predictive coding as well as of neural efficiency in anticipating the action of others, and they might be associated with the underlying process to interpret the goal of the observed action and prepare one's own response. Furthermore, the right anterior cerebellum showed different levels of activation for correct and incorrect anticipations in all groups, adding novel evidence of its subtle involvement in anticipation processes irrespective of expertise status.

Reading the Future from Body Movements -Anticipation in Handball

In speed-based sports that require fast reactions, the most accurate predictions are made once the players have seen the ball trajectory. However, waiting for the ball trajectory does not leave enough time for appropriate reactions. Expert athletes use kinematic information which they extract from the opponent's movements to anticipate the ball trajectory. Temporal occlusion, where only a part of the full movement sequence is presented, has often been used to research anticipation in sports. Unlike many previous studies, we chose occlusion points in video-stimuli of penalty shooting in handball based on the domain-specific analysis of movement sequences. Instead of relying on randomly chosen occlusion points, each time point in our study revealed a specific chunk of information about the direction of the ball. The multivariate analysis showed that handball goalkeepers were not only more accurate and faster than novices overall when predicting where the ball will end up, but that experts and novices also made their decisions based on different kinds of movement sequences. These findings underline the importance of kinematic knowledge for anticipation, but they also demonstrate the significance of carefully chosen occlusion points.

Familiarity with children improves the ability to recognize children's mental states: an fMRI study using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task and the Nencki Children Eyes Test

Theory of mind plays a fundamental role in human social interactions. People generally better understand the mental states of members of their own race, a predisposition called the own-race bias, which can be significantly reduced by experience. It is unknown whether the ability to understand mental states can be similarly influenced by own-age bias, whether this bias can be reduced by experience and, finally, what the neuronal correlates of this processes are. We evaluate whether adults working with children (WC) have an advantage over adults not working with children (NWC) in understanding the mental states of youngsters. Participants performed fMRI tasks with Adult Mind (AM) and Child Mind (CM) conditions based on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and a newly developed Nencki Children Eyes test. WC had better accuracy in the CM condition than NWC. In NWC, own-age bias was associated with higher activation in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in AM than in CM. This effect was not observed in the WC group, which showed higher activation in the pSTS and inferior frontal gyri in CM than in AM. Therefore, activation in these regions is required for the improvement in recognition of children's mental states caused by experience.

Motor competence is not enough: Handedness does not facilitate visual anticipation of same-handed action outcome

Visual understanding of others performing an action depends on both an observer's visual and motor experience with that action. With regard to visual anticipation of lateralized action outcome in one-on-one confrontative situations, however, the particular role of motor experience is poorly understood. Here, we considered handedness to test the laterality-specific contribution of visual and motor experience to action outcome anticipation. In two experiments, 55 left- and 114 right-handed handball players predicted the outcome (Exp. 1: throw direction; Exp. 2: type of throw) of videos showing left- and right-handed penalty-throws viewed from a goalkeeper's perspective. Analyses reveal that left- and right-handed participants performed similarly and had more difficulties anticipating the outcome direction, but not type of throw, of left- compared to right-handed penalties. Thus, albeit left- and right-handers differ in their lateralized motor experience, this does not seem to be sufficient to facilitate visual anticipation of same-handed action outcome. Instead, findings lend further support to the specificity of perceptual learning and visual experience arising from both left- and right-handers' predominant exposure to more common right-handed movements.

Occupational Neuroplasticity in the Human Brain: A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

Many studies have revealed the structural or functional brain changes induced by occupational factors. However, it remains largely unknown how occupation-related connectivity shapes the brain. In this paper, we denote occupational neuroplasticity as the neuroplasticity that takes place to satisfy the occupational requirements by extensively professional training and to accommodate the long-term, professional work of daily life, and a critical review of occupational neuroplasticity related to the changes in brain structure and functional networks has been primarily presented. Furthermore, meta-analysis revealed a neurophysiological mechanism of occupational neuroplasticity caused by professional experience. This meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies showed that experts displayed stronger activation in the left precentral gyrus [Brodmann area (BA)6], left middle frontal gyrus (BA6), and right inferior frontal gyrus (BA9) than novices, while meta-analysis of structural studies suggested that experts had a greater gray matter volume in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (BA22) and right putamen than novices. Together, these findings not only expand the current understanding of the common neurophysiological basis of occupational neuroplasticity across different occupations and highlight some possible targets for neural modulation of occupational neuroplasticity but also provide a new perspective for occupational science research.

Muscular effort coding in action representation in ballet dancers and controls: Electrophysiological evidence

The present electrophysiological (EEG) study investigated the neural correlates of perceiving effortful vs. effortless movements belonging to a specific repertoire (ballet). Previous evidence has shown an increased heart and respiratory rate during the observation and imagination of human actions that require a great muscular effort. In addition, TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) and EEG studies have evidenced a greater muscle-specific cortical excitability and an increase in late event-related potentials during the observation of effortful actions. In this investigation, fifteen professional female ballet dancers and 15 controls with no experience whatsoever with dance, gymnastics, or martial arts were recruited. They were shown 326 short videos displaying a male dancer performing standard ballet steps that could be either effortful or relatively effortless. Participants were instructed to observe each clip and imagine themselves physically executing the same movement. Importantly, they were blinded to the stimuli properties. The observation of effortful compared with effortless movements resulted in a larger P300 over frontal sites in dancers only, likely because of their visuomotor expertise with the specific steps. Moreover, an enhanced Late Positivity was identified over posterior sites in response to effortful stimuli in both groups, possibly reflecting the processing of larger quantities of visual kinematic information. The source reconstruction swLORETA performed on the Late Positivity component showed greater engagement of frontoparietal regions in dancers, while task-related frontal and occipitotemporal visual regions were more active in controls. It, therefore, appears that, in dancers, effort information was encoded in a more refined manner during action observation and in the absence of explicit instruction. Acquired motor knowledge seems to result in visuomotor resonance processes, which, in turn, underlies enhanced action representation of the observed movements.

From spatial navigation via visual construction to episodic memory and imagination

This hybrid of review and personal essay argues that models of visual construction are essential to extend spatial navigation models to models that link episodic memory and imagination. The starting point is the TAM-WG model, combining the Taxon Affordance Model and the World Graph model of spatial navigation. The key here is to reject approaches in which memory is restricted to unanalyzed views from familiar places, and their later recall. Instead, we will seek mechanisms for imagining truly novel scenes and episodes. We thus introduce a specific variant of schema theory and VISIONS, a cooperative computation model of visual scene understanding in which a scene is represented by an assemblage of schema instances with links to lower-level "patches" of relevant visual data. We sketch a new conceptual framework for future modeling, Visual Integration of Diverse Multi-Modal Aspects, by extending VISIONS from static scenes to episodes combining agents, actions and objects and assess its relevance to both navigation and episodic memory. We can then analyze imagination as a constructive process that combines aspects of memories of prior episodes along with other schemas and adjusts them into a coherent whole which, through expectations associated with diverse episodes and schemas, may yield the linkage of episodes that constitutes a dream or a narrative. The result is IBSEN, a conceptual model of Imagination in Brain Systems for Episodes and Navigation. The essay closes by analyzing other papers in this Special Issue to assess to what extent their results relate to the research proposed here.

The Effect of Expertise on Kinesthetic Motor Imagery of Complex Actions

The ability to mentally simulate an action by recalling the body sensations relative to the real execution is referred to as kinesthetic motor imagery (MI). Frontal and parietal motor-related brain regions are generally engaged during MI. The present study aimed to investigate the time course and neural correlates of complex action imagery and possible effects of expertise on the underlying action representation processes. Professional ballet dancers and controls were presented with effortful and effortless ballet steps and instructed to mentally reproduce each movement during EEG recording. Time-locked MI was associated with an Anterior Negativity (AN) component (400-550 ms) that was larger in dancers relative to controls. The AN was differentially modulated by the motor content (effort) as a function of ballet expertise. It was more negative in response to effortful (than effortless) movements in control participants only. This effect also had a frontal distribution in controls and a centro-parietal distribution in dancers, as shown by the topographic maps of the scalp voltage. The source reconstruction (swLORETA) of the recorded potentials in the AN time-window showed enhanced engagement of prefrontal regions in controls (BA 10/47) relative to dancers, and occipitotemporal (BA 20) and bilateral sensorimotor areas in dancers (BA6/40) compared with controls. This evidence seems to suggest that kinesthetic MI of complex action relied on visuomotor simulation processes in participants with acquired dance expertise. Simultaneously, increased cognitive demands occurred in participants lacking in motor knowledge with the specific action. Hence, professional dance training may lead to refined action representation processes.

Midline frontal and occipito-temporal activity during error monitoring in dyadic motor interactions

Discrepancies between sensory predictions and action outcome are at the base of error coding. However, these phenomena have mainly been studied focussing on individual performance. Here, we explored EEG responses to motor prediction errors during a human-avatar interaction and show that Theta/Alpha activity of the frontal error-monitoring system works in phase with activity of the occipito-temporal node of the action observation network. Our motor interaction paradigm required healthy individuals to synchronize their reach-to-grasp movements with those of a virtual partner in conditions that did (Interactive) or did not require (Cued) movement prediction and adaptation to the partner's actions. Crucially, in 30% of the trials the virtual partner suddenly and unpredictably changed its movement trajectory thereby violating the human participant's expectation. These changes elicited error-related neuromarkers (ERN/Pe - Theta/Alpha modulations) over fronto-central electrodes during the Interactive condition. Source localization and connectivity analyses showed that the frontal Theta/Alpha activity induced by violations of the expected interactive movements was in phase with occipito-temporal Theta/Alpha activity. These results expand current knowledge about the neural correlates of on-line interpersonal motor interactions linking the frontal error-monitoring system to visual, body motion-related, responses.

The effects of sport expertise and shot results on basketball players' action anticipation

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to clarify the effects of sport expertise and shot results on the action anticipation of basketball players. Eighty-eight male subjects participated in this study, namely, 30 collegiate basketball players, 28 recreational basketball players and 30 non-athletes. Each participant performed a shot anticipation task in which he watched the shooting phase, rising phase, high point and falling phase of a free throw and predicted the fate of the ball. The results showed that the collegiate players and recreational players demonstrated higher accuracy than the non-athletes for the falling phase but not for the other temporal conditions. Analysis of the shot results demonstrated that for made shots, the collegiate players and recreational players provided more accurate predictions than the non-athletes. These results suggested that the experienced players required a sufficient amount of information to be able to make accurate judgements and demonstrated that the experts’ judgement bias for made shots was independent of the temporal condition.

Neural Processes of Proactive and Reactive Controls Modulated by Motor-Skill Experiences

This study investigated the experience of open and closed motor skills on modulating proactive and reactive control processes in task switching. Fifty-four participants who were open-skilled (n = 18) or closed-skilled athletes (n = 18) or non-athletic adults (n = 18) completed a cued task-switching paradigm task. This task tapped into proactive or reactive controls of executive functions under different validity conditions. Electroencephalograms of the participants were captured during the task. In the 100% validity condition, the open-skilled participants showed significantly lower switch cost of response time than the closed-skilled and control participants. Results showed that the open-skilled participants had less positive-going parietal cue-locked P3 in the switch than repeat trials. Participants in the control group showed more positive-going cue-locked P3 in the switch than repeat trials, whereas the closed-skilled participants had no significant differences between the two types of trials. In the 50% validity condition, the open- and closed-skilled participants had less switch cost of response time than the control participants. Participants in the open- and closed-skilled groups showed less positive-going parietal stimulus-locked P3 in the switch than repeat trials, which was not the case for those in the control group. Our findings confirm the dissociation between proactive and reactive controls in relation to their modulations by the different motor-skill experiences. Both proactive and reactive controls of executive functions could be strengthened by exposing individuals to anticipatory or non-anticipatory enriched environments, suggesting proactive and reactive controls involved in motor-skill development seem to be transferable to domain-general executive functions.

Saccades and driving

Driving is not only a physical task, but is also a mental task. Visual inputs are indispensable in scanning the road, communicating with other road users and monitoring in-vehicle devices. The probability to detect an object while driving (conspicuity) is very important for assessment of driving effectiveness, and correct choice of information relevant to the safety of driving determines the efficiency of a driver. Accordingly, eye fixation and eye movements are essential for attention and choice in decision making. Saccades are the most used and effective means of maintaining a correct fixation while driving. In order to identify the features of the most predisposed subjects at high driving performances and those of the high-level sportsmen, we used a special tool called Visual Exploration Training System. We evaluated by saccade and attentional tests various groups of ordinary drivers, past professional racing drivers, professional truck drivers and professional athletes. Males have faster reaction time compared to females and an age below 30 seems to guarantee better precision of performance and accuracy in achieving all visual targets. The effect on physical activity and sports is confirmed. The performances of the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) selected students who were significantly better than those of a group of aspiring students and amateur racing drivers probably thanks to individual predisposition, training and so-called ‘neural efficiency’.

Implicit preference towards slim bodies and weight-stigma modulate the understanding of observed familiar actions

Mounting research evidence suggests that motor resonance (MR, i.e., the mapping of others' actions onto one's own motor repertoire) can be influenced by diverse factors related to individual differences. However, no evidence has been reported so far on the effects of physical appearance and negative attitudes toward obesity to the mechanism of MR. Thirty-six participants (18 normal-weight and 18 overweight) performed a weight discrimination task, in which they were observing amateur actors reaching and grasping a light or heavy cube with or without deception (true vs. fake actions). At the end of each video clip, participants were instructed to indicate the correct cube size (light or heavy). Importantly, body similarity between observers and actors was manipulated by presenting videos of normal-weight or overweight actors. Fat phobic attitudes and automatic preference for normal-weight than obese people were also examined. Signal detection analysis (d') on the acquired accuracy data has shown that both normal- and overweight participants were able to better discriminate truthful actions when performed by the normal-weight as compared to overweight actors. Furthermore, this finding was negatively correlated with increased scores of fat phobic attitudes in both groups. Hence, for the first time, we provide experimental evidence of action simulation being modulated by an implicit visual sensitivity towards slim bodies.

Influence of cognitive-motor expertise on brain dynamics of anticipatory-based outcome processing

Motor experience plays an important role in the ability to anticipate action outcomes, but little is known about the brain processes through which it modulates the preparation for unexpected events. To address this issue, EEG was employed while table tennis players and novices observed videos of serves in order to predict the expected ball direction based on the kinematics of a model's movement. Furthermore, we manipulated the congruency between the model's body kinematics and the subsequent ball trajectory while assessing the cerebral cortical activity of novices and experts to understand how experts respond to unexpected outcomes. Experts were more accurate in predicting the ball trajectories than novices and were further differentiated from novices in the cortical dynamics just prior to ball contact and during the period of observation of the ball trajectories. Consistent with the predicted response-outcome model, experts exhibited elevated theta oscillations during the incongruent relative to the congruent trajectories, while no such differences were observed in the novices. Source estimation for theta activity revealed stronger activation in the middle frontal gyrus for the experts in response to the incongruent trajectories. Collectively, the observed differences in cortical dynamics between the groups suggest that motor experience promotes central neural system adaptations that facilitate preparation for anticipated outcomes and contributes to adaptive cognitive-motor responses in the face of uncertainty.

Learning to play badminton altered resting-state activity and functional connectivity of the cerebellar sub-regions in adults

Previous studies have shown that sport experts are different from novices in functions and structures of the cerebellar sub-regions and the functional connectivity (FC) associated with the cerebellum, suggesting the role of the cerebellum on motor skill learning (MSL). However, the manipulation of individuals with different motor skills fails to exclude the effects of innate talents. In addition, individuals with higher motor skills often start with the MSL in their young ages. It is still unclear whether the effects regarding the cerebellum would be shown at one's adult age. The present study was to directly alter individuals' motor skills to investigate whether MSL (taking learning to play badminton as an example) in adulthood influences resting-state activity in the cerebellum. To this end, young adults without ball training experience were recruited as participants and were assigned randomly into the experimental group and the control group. Participants in the experimental group were asked to attend a badminton training course for 12 weeks, while the control group did not regularly attend any ball sports during this period. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was recorded before and after the training. Results showed that compared to the control group, the experimental group had smaller amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in right cerebellar hemispheric VI and left VIII after training. For the experimental group, right hemispheric VIII had a stronger FC with left hemispheric IV-V, cerebellar vermal IX, left middle cingulate gyrus and right hippocampus after training. Taken together, these findings suggested that MSL, at least learning to play badminton in adulthood, reduces resting-state activity in different sub-regions in the cerebellum but increases FC between sub-regions of the cerebellum as well as between sub-regions of the cerebellum and cerebral cortices (e.g., middle cingulate cortex and hippocampus).

Is there a prediction network? Meta-analytic evidence for a cortical-subcortical network likely subserving prediction

Predictive coding is an increasingly influential and ambitious concept in neuroscience viewing the brain as a 'hypothesis testing machine' that constantly strives to minimize prediction error, the gap between its predictions and the actual sensory input. Despite the invaluable contribution of this framework to the formulation of brain function, its neuroanatomical foundations have not been fully defined. To address this gap, we conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 39 neuroimaging studies of three functional domains (action perception, language and music) inherently involving prediction. The ALE analysis revealed a widely distributed brain network encompassing regions within the inferior and middle frontal gyri, anterior insula, premotor cortex, pre-supplementary motor area, temporoparietal junction, striatum, thalamus/subthalamus and the cerebellum. This network is proposed to subserve domain-general prediction and its relevance to motor control, attention, implicit learning and social cognition is discussed in light of the predictive coding scheme. Better understanding of the presented network may help advance treatments of neuropsychiatric conditions related to aberrant prediction processing and promote cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals.

A Brief Review of the Application of Neuroergonomics in Skilled Cognition During Expert Sports Performance

The elite sports environment provides a unique setting for studying human performance, where both cognitive and physical demands are high. Successful performance in sport is contingent upon key cognitive skills such as attention, perception, working memory and decision-making. The demands of competitive sport also increase loading on the central nervous system (CNS). Neuroimaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) offer the potential to investigate the cognitive demands of sport, neuroplasticity of athletes, and biofeedback training. However, practical and technical limitations of these methods have generally limited their use to laboratory-based studies of athletes during simulated sporting tasks. This review article, provides a brief overview of research that has applied neuroimaging technology to study various aspects of cognitive function during sports performance in athletes, alternative methods for measuring CNS loading [e.g., direct current (DC) potential], possible solutions and avenues of focus for future neuroergonomics research in sport.

Action Observation Combined With Conventional Training Improves the Rugby Lineout Throwing Performance: A Pilot Study

Combining action observation (AO) and physical practice contributes to motor skill learning, and a number of studies pointed out the beneficial role of AO training in improving the motor performance and the athletes' movement kinematics. The aim of this study was to investigate if AO combined with immediate conventional training was able to improve motor performance and kinematic parameters of a complex motor skill such as the lineout throw, a gesture that represents a key aspect of rugby, that is unique to this sport. Twenty elite rugby players were divided into two groups. The AO group watched a 5-min video-clip of an expert model performing the lineout throw toward a target at 7 m distance and, immediately after the AO, this group executed the conventional training, consisting of six repetitions x five blocks of throws. The CONTROL group performed only the conventional lineout training. Intervention period lasted 4 weeks, 3 sessions/week. The AO group showed significant improvements in throwing accuracy (i.e., number of throws hitting the target), whilst no significant changes were observed in the CONTROL group. As concerns kinematic parameters, hooker's arm mean velocity significantly increased in both groups, but the increase was higher in AO group compared to CONTROL group. Ball velocity significantly increased only in the AO group, whereas ball angle release and ball spinning significantly decreased in both groups, with no differences between groups. Finally, no significant changes in knee and elbow angles were observed. Our results showed that the combination of AO and conventional training was more effective than a conventional training alone in improving the performance of elite rugby players, in executing a complex motor skill, such as the lineout. This combined training led to significant improvements in throwing accuracy and in hooker's and ball's kinematic parameters. Since AO can be easily implemented in combination with conventional training, the results of this study can encourage coaches in designing specific lineout training programs, which include AO cognitive training.

Who hit the ball out? An egocentric temporal order bias

Temporal order judgments can require integration of self-generated action events and external sensory information. We examined whether conscious experience is biased to perceive one's own action events to occur before simultaneous external events, such as deciding whether you or your opponent last touched a basketball heading out of bounds. Participants made temporal order judgments comparing their own touch to another participant's touch, a mechanical touch, or an auditory click. In all three manipulations, we find a robust bias to perceive self-generated action events to occur about 50 ms before external sensory events. We denote this bias to perceive self-actions earlier as the "egocentric temporal order" bias. Thus, if two players hit a ball nearly simultaneously, then both will likely have different subjective experiences of who touched last, leading to arguments.

Influence of skill level on predicting the success of one's own basketball free throws

Basketball players sometimes claim to know when their shot is good, even before it goes in. This is likely because shooter proprioception can help determine shot outcome, even before their eyes confirm it. This phenomenon, however, has not been systematically explored for collegiate and recreational shooters. This study compared how well collegiate shooters and recreational shooters could predict outcomes of their own free throws without seeing the shot result. Forty collegiate and recreational shooters shot standard free throws while wearing liquid-crystal occlusion glasses that activated to occlude vision immediately following ball release during each shot. After each shot, shooters verbally predicted shot outcome as “in” or “out”, and predicted results were compared with actual outcomes. As anticipated, for made shots, collegiate shooters more accurately predicted their own shots than recreational shooters. However, unexpectedly, for missed shots, collegiate shooters were worse than recreational shooters and were even significantly worse than chance. Further analysis found that collegiate shooters exhibited a significantly higher bias toward predicting their shots as “in”. Understanding how shooters of different skill levels perceive their own shot could inform future training strategies for improving shooter accuracy.

Anticipation of wheelchair and rollerblade actions in spinal cord injured people, rollerbladers, and physiotherapists

Embodied Cognition Theories (ECT) postulate that higher-order cognition is heavily influenced by sensorimotor signals. We explored the active role of somatosensory afferents and motor efferents in modulating the perception of actions in people who have suffered a massive body-brain disconnection because of spinal cord injury (SCI), which leads to sensory-motor loss below the lesion. We assessed whether the habitual use of a wheelchair enhances the capacity to anticipate the endings of tool-related actions, with respect to actions that have become impossible. In a Temporal Occlusion task, three groups of participants (paraplegics, rollerbladers and physiotherapists) observed two sets of videos depicting an actor who attempted to climb onto a platform using a wheelchair or rollerblades. Three different outcomes were possible, namely: a) success (the actor went up the step); b) fail (the actor stopped before the step without going up) and c) fall (the actor fell without going up). Each video set comprised 5 different durations increasing in complexity: in the shortest (600ms) only preparatory body movements were shown and in the longest (3000ms) the complete action was shown. The participants were requested to anticipate the outcome (success, fail, fall). The main result showed that the SCI group performed better with the wheelchair videos and poorer with rollerblade videos than both groups, even if the physiotherapists group never used rollerblades. In line with the ECT, this suggests that the action anticipation skills are not only influenced by motor expertise, but also by motor connection.

Bilateral engagement of the occipito-temporal cortex in response to dance kinematics in experts

Previous evidence has shown neuroplastic changes in brain anatomy and connectivity associated with the acquisition of professional visuomotor skills. Reduced hemispherical asymmetry was found in the sensorimotor and visual areas in expert musicians and athletes compared with non-experts. Moreover, increased expertise with faces, body, and objects resulted in an enhanced engagement of the occipito-temporal cortex (OTC) during stimulus observation. The present study aimed at investigating whether intense and extended practice with dance would result in an enhanced symmetric response of OTC at an early stage of action processing. Expert ballet dancers and non-dancer controls were presented with videos depicting ballet steps during EEG recording. The observation of the moving dancer elicited a posterior N2 component, being larger over the left hemisphere in dancers than controls. The source reconstruction (swLORETA) of the negativity showed the engagement of the bilateral inferior and middle temporal regions in experts, while right-lateralized activity was found in controls. The dancers also showed an early P2 and enhanced P300 responses, indicating faster stimulus processing and subsequent recognition. This evidence seemed to suggest expertise-related increased sensitivity of the OTC in encoding body kinematics. Thus, we speculated that long-term whole-body practice would result in enriched and refined action processing.

Parieto-frontal mechanisms underlying observation of complex hand-object manipulation

The observation of actions performed by others is believed to activate the Action Observation Network (AON). Previous evidence suggests that subjects with a specific motor skill show increased activation of the AON during observation of the same skill. The question arises regarding which modulation of the AON occurs during observation of novel complex manipulative actions that are beyond the personal motor repertoire. To address this issue, we carried out a functional MRI study in which healthy volunteers without specific hand motor skills observed videos displaying hand-object manipulation executed by an expert with high manual dexterity, by an actor with intermediate ability or by a naïve subject. The results showed that the observation of actions performed by a naïve model produced stronger activation in a dorso-medial parieto-premotor circuit including the superior parietal lobule and dorsal premotor cortex, compared to observation of an expert actor. Functional connectivity analysis comparing the observation of the naïve model with that of the expert model, revealed increased connectivity between dorsal areas of the AON. This suggests a possible distinction between ventral and dorsal brain circuits involved in the processing of different aspects of action perception, such as kinematics and final action goal.

The Double Take of Expertise: Neural Expansion Is Associated With Outstanding Performance

The performance of experts seems almost effortless. The neural-efficiency hypothesis takes this into account, suggesting that because of practice and automatization of procedures, experts require fewer brain resources. Here, I argue that the way the brain accommodates complex skills does indeed have to do with the nature of experts’ performance. However, instead of exhibiting less brain activation, experts’ performance actually engages more brain areas. Behind the seemingly effortless performance of experts lies a complex cognitive system that relies on knowledge about the domain of expertise. Unlike novices, who need to execute one process at a time, experts are able to recognize an object, retrieve its function, and connect it to another object simultaneously. The expert brain deals with this computational burden by engaging not only specific brain areas in one hemisphere but also the same (homologous) area in the opposite hemisphere. This phenomenon, which I call the double take of expertise, has been observed in a number of expertise domains. I describe it here in object- and pattern-recognition tasks in the domain of chess. I also discuss the importance of the study of expertise for our understanding of the human brain in general.

The inhibition of motor contagion induced by action observation

In sports, success and failure are believed to be contagious. Yet it is unclear what might cause contagion. This study investigated whether motor contagion is associated with the active observation of the kinematic actions of others. In Experiment 1, six skilled hammer throwers threw a hammer after watching a video of a model throwing toward the left, center, or right. The video included two types of action kinematics which resulted in throw directions that were either easy or difficult to predict based on the model's kinematics. In Experiment 2, the athletes threw hammers after watching the same stimuli as Experiment 1, but while engaging in one of two types of focus (self-focus or non-self-focus) to determine whether motor contagion could be diminished. Results demonstrated that the direction of each participant's throw was more influenced by the videos that contained easy action kinematics, supporting a critical role for the meaningfulness of the link between an action and its outcome in producing motor contagion. Motion analysis revealed that motor contagion was not likely to be a result of the observer imitating the model's action kinematics. The contagion observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when participants engaged in self-focus. These results suggest that motor contagion is influenced by the predictability of an action outcome when observing an action, and that motor contagion can be inhibited through self-focus when observing.

Error, rather than its probability, elicits specific electrocortical signatures: a combined EEG-immersive virtual reality study of action observation

Detecting errors in one’s own actions, and in the actions of others, is a crucial ability for adaptable and flexible behavior. Studies show that specific EEG signatures underpin the monitoring of observed erroneous actions (error-related negativity, error positivity, mid-frontal theta oscillations). However, the majority of studies on action observation used sequences of trials where erroneous actions were less frequent than correct actions. Therefore, it was not possible to disentangle whether the activation of the performance monitoring system was due to an error, as a violation of the intended goal, or to a surprise/novelty effect, associated with a rare and unexpected event. Combining EEG and immersive virtual reality (IVR-CAVE system), we recorded the neural signal of 25 young adults who observed, in first-person perspective, simple reach-to-grasp actions performed by an avatar aiming for a glass. Importantly, the proportion of erroneous actions was higher than correct actions. Results showed that the observation of erroneous actions elicits the typical electrocortical signatures of error monitoring, and therefore the violation of the action goal is still perceived as a salient event. The observation of correct actions elicited stronger alpha suppression. This confirmed the role of the alpha-frequency band in the general orienting response to novel and infrequent stimuli. Our data provide novel evidence that an observed goal error (the action slip) triggers the activity of the performance-monitoring system even when erroneous actions, which are, typically, relevant events, occur more often than correct actions and thus are not salient because of their rarity.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Activation of the performance-monitoring system (PMS) is typically investigated when errors in a sequence are comparatively rare. However, whether the PMS is activated by errors per se or by their infrequency is not known. Combining EEG-virtual reality techniques, we found that observing frequent (70%) action errors performed by avatars elicits electrocortical error signatures suggesting that deviation from the prediction of how learned actions should correctly deploy, rather than its frequency, is coded in the PMS.

Tactical Knowledge, Decision-Making, and Brain Activation Among Volleyball Coaches of Varied Experience

This study compared decision-making (DM) of experienced and novice volleyball coaches while measuring blood flow brain activation with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. We sampled 34 coaches (mean [ M] age of 32.5, standard deviation [ SD] = 9.4 years) divided into two experience groups: (a) novice ( M = 2.8, SD = 1.9 years) and (b) experienced (M = 19, SD = 7.2 years). We evaluated coaches' DM through their responses to video-based scenarios of attacks performed in the extremities of the net within the Declarative Tactical Knowledge Test in Volleyball. We found no significant DM differences between the two groups of coaches ( p = .063), though novice (vs. experienced) coaches showed greater blood flow of the prefrontal cortex when visualizing the game situations. While experienced coaches may have better prefrontal neural efficiency during DM in these situations, further research is needed to evaluate other cerebral areas; since blood flow is an indirect measure of neural efficiency, and activity in remaining cortical components was unknown in this study.