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Budnik-Przybylska D, Syty P, Kaźmierczak M, Przybylski J, Doliński Ł, Łabuda M, Jasik P, Kastrau A, di Fronso S, Bertollo M. Psychophysiological strategies for enhancing performance through imagery-skin conductance level analysis in guided vs. self-produced imagery. Sci Rep 2024; 14:5197. [PMID: 38431722 PMCID: PMC10908843 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55743-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Athletes need to achieve their optimal level of arousal for peak performance. Visualization or mental rehearsal (i.e., Imagery) often helps to obtain an appropriate level of activation, which can be detected by monitoring Skin Conductance Level (SCL). However, different types of imagery could elicit different amount of physiological arousal. Therefore, this study aims: (1) to investigate differences in SCL associated with two instructional modalities of imagery (guided vs. self-produced) and six different scripts; (2) to check if SCL could differentiate respondents according to their sport expertise. Thirty participants, aged between 14 and 42 years (M = 22.93; SD = 5.24), with different sport levels took part in the study. Participants listened to each previously recorded script and then were asked to imagine the scene for a minute. During the task, SCL was monitored. We analysed the mean value, variance, slope and number of fluctuations per minute of the electrodermal signal. Unsupervised machine learning models were used for measuring the resemblance of the signal. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for distinguishing guided and self-produced imagery, and The Mann-Whitney U test was used for distinguishing results of different level athletes. We discovered that among others, self-produced imagery generates lower SCL, higher variance, and a higher number of fluctuations compared to guided imagery. Moreover, we found similarities of the SCL signal among the groups of athletes (i.e. expertise level). From a practical point of view, our findings suggest that different imagery instructional modalities can be implemented for specific purposes of mental preparation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dagmara Budnik-Przybylska
- Division of Sport Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
| | - Paweł Syty
- Institute of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
- BioTechMed Center, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Maria Kaźmierczak
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Division of Family Studies and Quality of Life, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Jacek Przybylski
- Division of Sport Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Łukasz Doliński
- Department of Biomechatronics, Faculty of Electrical and Control Engineering, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Marta Łabuda
- Institute of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
- BioTechMed Center, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Patryk Jasik
- Institute of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
- BioTechMed Center, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Adrian Kastrau
- Institute of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Selenia di Fronso
- Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics Center, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Maurizio Bertollo
- Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics Center, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
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