What is the cognitive process of elite athletes working at their peak? In this article, researcher Dr. Laurie Rauch discusses the various levels of thought, conscious and subconscious, behind human movement in sport.
An athlete’s movement on the sports field is largely an automatic process that is coordinated subconsciously. The only voluntary part of movement is its intended goal (Rauch et al. 2013); the movement itself essentially consists of a chain of reflexes (Evarts 1980), (Lacquaniti et al. 2012). Indeed, thinking or reasoning about how to execute a movement would only hamper performance.
Recent advances in brain imaging – coupled with vast resources of animal behaviour and human brain disorder research – allow researchers a view inside the working brain; though brain imaging during peak athletic performance is not yet possible. One way to partially overcome this difficulty is via indirect measurements of an athlete’s brain activations during movement execution. Two such indirect brain measurements are the motor outputs of 1) the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the behavioural outputs of 2) central pattern generators (CPGs).
Note that both the ANS and CPGs are predominantly controlled by the reptilian brain, or R-brain. As the name suggests, the R-brain is complex enough to keep primitive vertebrates, like sharks, amphibians and reptiles alive and thriving in a dangerous world without needing to think. Apart from having an R-brain, humans also have a Thinking brain that enables us to perform optimally in our day jobs; to anticipate the future; to build the life we desire for ourselves. It is in charge of putting in place those things that make for a successful life.
When it comes to peak sporting performance, though, the successful athlete has to tap into their R-brain while keeping their Thinking brain in a state of heightened awareness. The Thinking brain’s main involvement with movement is that of an ‘observer’. Athletes routinely practice a superfluity of movement patterns – mimicking what may be required during competition – until such movements are performed subconsciously (Pisani et al. 2005). This enables world-class athletes to move at speeds that seemingly defy the laws of nature, often under extremes of pressure.
Lightning fast movements are only possible if athletes move ‘from the spine’. Movement from the spine, known as locomotion, is executed via CPGs (Grillner 2011), and they are co-ordinated by the R-brain. However, it is crucial that cortical modulation by the Thinking brain remains ‘online’ in case last-minute movement modifications are necessary (Grillner & Wallen 2004),(Bout 1998); (Pasquereau et al. 2007), (Gianaros & Sheu 2009),(Grillner et al. 2005). This ability to adjust movement in the midst of its execution is known as having ‘cognitive or behavioural flexibility’ (Brown et al. 2010; Scott 1962).
Nadia Comaneci at the Montreal Olympics in 1976
Gymnast Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10 scores at the ‘76 Olympics is a good example of cognitive flexibility in action. Nadia said she practiced her beam summersaults over and over and over again until she could execute them completely subconsciously. Nadia’s movements were thus executed by the subconscious R-brain, but she kept her Thinking brain ‘online’ in a state of heightened awareness. This allowed her to ‘feel’ if her body went out of alignment so that she could instantly fix her structure in the midst of a summersault to ensure a perfect landing.
Although not immediately obvious, movement from the spine would be particularly important for F1 Grand Prix racing. Split second timing could be the difference between winning or losing; between life and death. Mario Andretti’s famous quote sums it up perfectly:
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.”
Under control of the Thinking brain that is – cornering or overtaking at a high speed is best done subcortically by the R-brain. At these high speeds interference by the Thinking brain may just prove disastrous. An even more informative quote is this one ascribed to Sir Jackie Stewart:
“If I know I’m going fast and it feels fast, I’m doing it wrong.”
Jackie Stewart racing at the German Grand Prix
Presumably ‘doing it right’ means when he knows he is going fast, it shouldn’t feel fast. This driving state is only possible when one is ‘driving from the spine’ while the ‘observing’ Thinking brain is in a state of heightened awareness. We can glean additional information from Jackie’s ‘observing’ Thinking brain. His logical left brain ‘knows’ he is cornering at 150 mph while his creative right brain ‘feels’ he is completely in the zone. Like Nadia’s mid-air tweaking by feeling, Jackie’s mid-corner tweaking by feeling ensures traction is never lost.
The flip side of R-brain-mediated increases in reaction time is that it necessitates increased activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), better known as our Fight or Flight System. Crucially, having too much SNS drive will hamper the R-brain locomotor control plus it will activate ‘unwanted’ cognitive modulations like ‘thinking’ (Dzirasa et al. 2010). From this quote by Messi we see he is in agreement:
“I never think about the play or visualize anything. I do what comes to me at that moment. Instinct. It has always been that way.”
It is essential that thinking does not interfere with the ‘wanted’ cognitive modulations like heightened awareness, ‘feeling’ and ‘knowing’, as thinking will slow reaction times right down (Forstmann et al. 2008). Only specific systems of the body should thus be targeted for SNS up-regulation, like the spine and the musculoskeletal system. On the other hand the brain (Dzirasa et al. 2010) and the heart (Prinsloo et al. 2013),(Fourie et al. 2011) should receive only measured amounts of sympathetic drive, just enough to cover their physiological demands. Especially the heart should remain as calm and relaxed as possible. This is achieved via cortical modulation of the ANS, which is made up of the above mentioned SNS as well as the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS).
The SNS is responsible for the arousal or drive in our bodies; to up-regulate the body and ready it for action. The SNS is responsible for things like increasing our heart rates, breathing rates and BP over and above the body’s physiological demands; it makes our body hair stand on end; it decreases our salivary juices, our digestion and sexual arousal; it widens the pupils of our eyes.
The PSNS on the other hand is responsible for the rest and recovery processes in our bodies. PSNS activation decreases our heart rates, breathing rates and BP; it increases our salivary juices, digestion and sexual arousal. It constricts the pupils of our eyes allowing for a more open focus rather than fixating on only one thing.
Intimately linked to survival as it is, the cardiovascular (CV) system (heart and circulation) is under dominant SNS control. It is designed to maintain homeostasis on the inside of the body no matter what situation confronts us on the outside, be it widely fluctuating temperatures; physical danger; a dearth of food or running a personal best marathon time.
Dampening down the SNS drive of the CV system in order to remain calm and in the zone on the pitch will thus require careful cortical modulation of the SNS drive. A little known gem is that the PSNS is even more powerful than the SNS and actually feeds off the SNS drive.
The greater the SNS drive the greater the ability of the PSNS to tap into this energy to increase our focus and calmness.
But how do we go about achieving this calm and focused state under pressure to prevent us losing the ball, as so succinctly stated by Johan Cruyff:
“A poor player isn’t poor because he tends to kick the ball in his own goal. It’s because when you put intense pressure on him, he loses control. So you have to increase the tempo of the game and he’ll automatically give the ball away.”
Johan Cruyff dribbles past Argentina goalkeeper Daniel Carnevali on his way to scoring a goal during the 1974 World Cup. Cruyff netted two goals to help Holland defeat Argentina 4–0 in the June 26 quarter-final held in Gelsenkirchen, West Germany.
In a nutshell, our ability to remain in control comes from 1) the correct action line relative to our opponent and 2) posturally correct movement to ensure that the SNS drive in our spine activates only the musculoskeletal system plus attendant CV system to supply enough blood, oxygen and fuel to the muscles to achieve the set goal.
We demonstrated this in a group of professional soccer players who underwent a 4 week movement training program underpinned by the basics of Wu style Taijiquan, a tool/syllabus to practise feeling the ‘inner’ while focusing on the ‘outer’ by giving the participants key pointers to come back to centre (Rauch et al. 2013). Wu style Taijiquan was developed on the battlefield of old to teach warriors how to remain calm on the inside while confronting the enemy on the outside.
The pointer used was lengthening of the upper back, with crown lifted and chin in, to allow for softness of chest thereby facilitating abdominal breathing. This strong structure in the upper back thus allows for rhythmic movements from the spine. The soccer players were taught to be aware of their postures and how to instantaneously fix incorrect structures to thereby immediately follow the ‘outer’ again.
A central component of the program was to teach the players to maintain the correct action line relative to their opponents/competitors. We used individual two-minute mock boxing rounds to place the soccer players under pressure while continually measuring their heart rates and their body postures and joint angles via 3D cameras.
Before Taijiquan-based movement training the players felt more relaxed the more defensive they were when confronting the boxing opponent; but after training they felt more relaxed the more offensive they were when confronting the boxing opponent.
Very interestingly, the players felt more relaxed (based on their heart rate changes during the boxing round from before to after training) on the offensive after Taijiquan training than they did when they were on the defensive before the Taijiquan training.
Additionally, the players who had the best body positions and joint angles relative to their opponent had the biggest reductions in heart rate. How did these players control their heart rates? Cognitive modulation of the heart is mediated by the ‘central autonomic network’ (CAN) that incorporates the insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala (Nagai et al. 2010) (Soros & Hachinski 2012). The insular cortex – also able to receive homeostatic feedback from the body – has been identified as the key integrator of the so-called brain-heart axis regulation of the heart and circulation by the CAN (Nagai et al. 2010), (Hachinski et al. 2008), (Soros & Hachinski 2012).
There is convincing evidence for lateralisation of CAN autonomic regulation such that the SNS is more dominantly modulated by the right hemisphere and the PSNS by the left hemisphere (Ozdemir & Hachinski 2008). The reflexive increases in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration leading up to a player running onto the soccer pitch is effected by SNS activations in the R-brain, but this can be modulated by the CAN via the hypothalamus (Dampney et al. 2008), (Tanaka & McAllen 2008). Locomotor speed, on the other hand, is up-regulated via the Midbrain Locomotor Region (MLR) found in the centre of the R-brain, which can also be modulated by the Thinking brain via the Basal Ganglia (Rauch et al. 2013)
As mentioned at the start, movement hinges on the intended goal of the movement. The more important the goal – as set in the Prefrontal Cortex of the Thinking brain (Rauch et al. 2013) – the greater the MLR activation of the locomotor muscles and the greater the SNS drive of the CV system to ensure the muscles have enough oxygen and fuel. If goal acquisition is left to the R-brain this synchrony between locomotion and the CV system will be optimised. Different neurotransmitters are involved; the sympathetic nerves release noradrenaline to up-regulate the CV system, while the locomotor system is upregulated by dopamine (Derjean et al. 2010) and serotonin (Jacobs et al. 2002).
Serotonin is very active during repetitive movements like running, helping to activate, smooth out and maintain movement independently from the Thinking brain. It also blocks out distracting sensory signals and even suppresses pain.
So the key principle is that heart rate modulation will be optimal when performing under pressure if the Thinking brain focusses on correct movement & action line and allows the R-brain to control movement from the spine. The observing Thinking brain keeps awareness of 1) the overall game plan via left brain logic and 2) correct body posture via right brain feeling. This is the main focus of our Taijiquan based movement training.
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