Highly reproducible eyeblink timing during formula car driving.

How do humans blink while driving a vehicle? Although gaze control patterns have been previously reported in relation to successful steering, eyeblinks that disrupt vision are believed to be randomly distributed during driving or are ignored. Herein, we demonstrate that eyeblink timing shows reproducible patterns during real formula car racing driving and is related to car control. We studied three top-level racing drivers. Their eyeblinks and driving behavior were acquired during practice sessions. The results revealed that the drivers blinked at surprisingly similar positions on the courses. We identified three factors underlying the eyeblink patterns: the driver's individual blink count, lap pace associated with how strictly they followed their pattern on each lap, and car acceleration associated with when/where to blink at a moment. These findings suggest that the eyeblink pattern reflected cognitive states during in-the-wild driving and experts appear to change such cognitive states continuously and dynamically.

Neural oscillation amplitude in the frontal cortex predicts esport results.

In competitive matches, strategic decisions and emotional control are important. Relevant cognitive functions and corresponding neural activities in simple and short-term laboratory tasks have been reported. Brain resources are intensively allocated in the frontal cortex during strategic decision-making. The suppression of the frontal cortex with alpha-synchronization optimizes emotional control. However, no studies have reported the contribution of neural activity to the outcome of a more complex and prolonged task. To clarify this issue, we focused on a fighting video game following a two-round first-pass system. Frontal high-gamma and alpha power in the first and third pre-round periods, respectively, were found to be increased in a winning match. Furthermore, inter-participant variations in the importance of strategic decisions and emotional control in the first and third pre-round periods were correlated with frontal high-gamma and alpha power, respectively. Therefore, the psychological and mental state, involving frontal neural fluctuations, is predictive of match outcome.

Relationship between pre-driving heart rate and driving performance in formula car racing: a case study.

Formula car racing is highly competitive and induces significant physical stress. Previous studies have shown that intense physical stresses, such as g-force, accelerate the driver's heart rate (HR). In contrast, it remains unclear whether psychological stress affects the physiological states of racers and racing performance. To investigate this phenomenon, we developed a wearable monitor that can track the driver's HR during a race. The HR and driving performance of two professional drivers were monitored in real racing situations. Changes in HR were then evaluated based on changes in the racing situation and car behavior. The results suggest that HR acceleration is strongly correlated with race situations such as free practice or qualifying sessions, and that such changes are related to subsequent driving performance.

Positive Relationship Between Precompetitive Sympathetic Predominance and Competitive Performance in Elite Extreme Sports Athletes.

Elite athletes achieve superior performance under high pressure in competitive situations. Although it is known that such situations affect the precompetitive activity of their autonomic nervous system (ANS), the relationship between precompetitive ANS activity and performance remains controversial. Especially in extreme sports, it has been shown that cardiac sympathetic tone occurs in athletes before competition attempts. However, the relationship between precompetitive sympathetic tone and performance is unclear. To investigate this relationship in extreme sports, we organized a freestyle snowboard jumping competition and examined competitors' physiological states and performance during this event. The electrocardiograms (ECGs) of 20 elite snowboarders were measured 10 min before each jump in different competitive situations: practice, qualifying, and final sessions. The mean heart rate (HR), the low-frequency to high-frequency component ratio (LF/HF ratio), the logarithm of the HF (lnHF) component of the frequency-domain of the heart rate variability (HRV), the ratio of the standard deviation of all R-R intervals to the root mean square of successive differences of R-R intervals (SDNN/rMSSD ratio), and the rMSSD of the time-domain of the HRV were calculated from the ECG data. The results showed a significant increase in the mean HR as well as significant decreases in the lnHF component and rMSSD of the HRV as the sessions progressed. Interestingly, the mean HR, LF/HF ratio and SDNN/rMSSD ratio of the HRV showed significant positive correlations with competitive scores, and the lnHF component and rMSSD of the HRV showed significant negative correlations with the scores. Our results indicate that precompetitive ANS activity becomes predominantly sympathetic in elite extreme athletes, such as freestyle snowboarders, when the competition intensifies, and that this sympathetic predominance is positively related to competitive performance.

The effects of competitive and interactive play on physiological state in professional esports players.

In esports competitions, both motor skills used to manipulate an avatar and psychological skills are important to achieve optimal performance. Previous studies have investigated the role of psychological skill on computer game performance by observing the modulation of physiological state. However, how physiological state is modulated in esports athletes during an esports match is unclear. In this study, we examined two hypotheses to clarify the effects of competitive and interactive play on the physiological state of esports professionals: (1) the sympathetic nervous system of esports players is activated by competitive play and modulated by the game situation, and (2) the autonomic nervous system activities of players in dyads are synchronized positively/negatively by interpersonal interaction. We measured electrocardiograms (ECGs) in nine professional esports players while they played a fighting video game to investigate changes in physiological state. We compared ECGs collected in the resting state, while playing against a computer, and while playing against other players. We calculated the mean heart rate (HR), temporal pattern of HR, and correlation of temporal HR patterns of the pairs in the player-versus-player condition. The results showed that mean HR was elevated by the presence of a human opponent compared with a computer opponent, and an increase in mean HR was also observed in specific game situations (beginning of the match, toward the end of a game or match). These results suggest that the sympathetic nervous system in esports players is activated by competitive play and is modulated by the game situation. In addition, the temporal HR patterns in the opponent pairs were synchronized, suggesting that autonomic nervous system activity is synchronized in player dyads via interpersonal interaction during competitive play. Our results provide insight regarding the relationship between physiological state and psychological skill in esports professionals during esports competitions.

Behavioral Measures in a Cognitive-Motor Batting Task Explain Real Game Performance of Top Athletes.

Excellent athletic performance in baseball and softball batting is achieved through the momentary cognitive-motor processes. However, in previous studies, cognitive and motor processes are investigated separately. In this study, we focused on the difference in the time of swing onset (a delta onset) during a batting task where 17 elite female softball batters hit balls randomly thrown at two different speeds by pitchers. The delta onset included both cognitive and motor processes because the batters needed to anticipate the ball speed and discriminate their swing motion according to the time-to-contact. Then, we investigated the relationship between the delta onset and the batting outcomes of the batting task, and the relationship between the experimental outcomes and actual batting performance (batting average) over a season. We used path analysis to clarify the structure of the cognitive-motor processes and consequent performance. We found that the batters who had a larger delta onset attained superior batting outcomes (i.e., higher exit velocity and lower miss ratio) in the batting task, and these experimental outcomes explained 67% of the batting average in real games. On the other hand, the cognitive scores (judgement accuracy and rapidity) obtained from a button pressing task, where batters responded to a ball by pressing a button instead of actually swinging, explained only 34% of the batting average. Therefore, our model quantitatively describes the key cognitive-motor structure for athletes and can partially predict a batter's performance in real games. These findings suggest that it is important to employ both cognitive and motor processes in performing tasks, such as this batting task, to properly evaluate a batter's actual ability.

New Wearable Heart Rate Monitor for Contact Sports and Its Potential to Change Training Load Management.

Athletes in all sports face injury or illness if they train too much. Therefore, it is crucial for them to manage their training load. Monitoring the heart rate is one way to estimate training load. However, there are limitations to a monitor's measurement ability in contact sports like rugby. Another method to estimate training load in contact sports is the rating of perceived exertion of a player, which is based on a questionnaire. It however takes a long time to obtain answers to questionnaires in team sports. As a solution to this problem, we developed a wearable heart rate monitor for rugby players. The garment-type monitor with flank electrodes can measure the heart rate even in rugby training situations. We also propose a method to estimate the training load from the measured heart rate. The method can be used instead of a questionnaire administered to the players and can reduce the labor in the estimation of the training load.

Effect of visuomotor-map uncertainty on visuomotor adaptation.

Vision and proprioception contribute to generating hand movement. If a conflict between the visual and proprioceptive feedback of hand position is given, reaching movement is disturbed initially but recovers after training. Although previous studies have predominantly investigated the adaptive change in the motor output, it is unclear whether the contributions of visual and proprioceptive feedback controls to the reaching movement are modified by visuomotor adaptation. To investigate this, we focused on the change in proprioceptive feedback control associated with visuomotor adaptation. After the adaptation to gradually introduce visuomotor rotation, the hand reached the shifted position of the visual target to move the cursor to the visual target correctly. When the cursor feedback was occasionally eliminated (probe trial), the end point of the hand movement was biased in the visual-target direction, while the movement was initiated in the adapted direction, suggesting the incomplete adaptation of proprioceptive feedback control. Moreover, after the learning of uncertain visuomotor rotation, in which the rotation angle was randomly fluctuated on a trial-by-trial basis, the end-point bias in the probe trial increased, but the initial movement direction was not affected, suggesting a reduction in the adaptation level of proprioceptive feedback control. These results suggest that the change in the relative contribution of visual and proprioceptive feedback controls to the reaching movement in response to the visuomotor-map uncertainty is involved in visuomotor adaptation, whereas feedforward control might adapt in a manner different from that of the feedback control.

Multiple motor learning strategies in visuomotor rotation.

BACKGROUND: When exposed to a continuous directional discrepancy between movements of a visible hand cursor and the actual hand (visuomotor rotation), subjects adapt their reaching movements so that the cursor is brought to the target. Abrupt removal of the discrepancy after training induces reaching error in the direction opposite to the original discrepancy, which is called an aftereffect. Previous studies have shown that training with gradually increasing visuomotor rotation results in a larger aftereffect than with a suddenly increasing one. Although the aftereffect difference implies a difference in the learning process, it is still unclear whether the learned visuomotor transformations are qualitatively different between the training conditions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We examined the qualitative changes in the visuomotor transformation after the learning of the sudden and gradual visuomotor rotations. The learning of the sudden rotation led to a significant increase of the reaction time for arm movement initiation and then the reaching error decreased, indicating that the learning is associated with an increase of computational load in motor preparation (planning). In contrast, the learning of the gradual rotation did not change the reaction time but resulted in an increase of the gain of feedback control, suggesting that the online adjustment of the reaching contributes to the learning of the gradual rotation. When the online cursor feedback was eliminated during the learning of the gradual rotation, the reaction time increased, indicating that additional computations are involved in the learning of the gradual rotation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that the change in the motor planning and online feedback adjustment of the movement are involved in the learning of the visuomotor rotation. The contributions of those computations to the learning are flexibly modulated according to the visual environment. Such multiple learning strategies would be required for reaching adaptation within a short training period.

Large-field visual motion directly induces an involuntary rapid manual following response.

Recent neuroscience studies have been concerned with how aimed movements are generated on the basis of target localization. However, visual information from the surroundings as well as from the target can influence arm motor control, in a manner similar to known effects in postural and ocular motor control. Here, we show an ultra-fast manual motor response directly induced by a large-field visual motion. This rapid response aided reaction when the subject moved his hand in the direction of visual motion, suggesting assistive visually evoked manual control during postural movement. The latency of muscle activity generating this response was as short as that of the ocular following responses to the visual motion. Abrupt visual motion entrained arm movement without affecting perceptual target localization, and the degrees of motion coherence and speed of the visual stimulus modulated this arm response. This visuomotor behavior was still observed when the visual motion was confined to the "follow-through" phase of a hitting movement, in which no target existed. An analysis of the arm movements suggests that the hitting follow through made by the subject is not a part of a reaching movement. Moreover, the arm response was systematically modulated by hand bias forces, suggesting that it results from a reflexive control mechanism. We therefore propose that its mechanism is radically distinct from motor control for aimed movements to a target. Rather, in an analogy with reflexive eye movement stabilizing a retinal image, we consider that this mechanism regulates arm movements in parallel with voluntary motor control.