Abstract
We investigated the relationship between performance-related anxiety and the neural response to error feedback that was delivered during the execution of a time estimation task. Using the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2), we selected university athletes high and low in sports anxiety. Participants executed a time estimation task where they were instructed to estimate 1 s by pressing a button after a sound cue. They performed this task while their performance was being evaluated by an experimenter (evaluation condition) and also while alone (in a no-evaluation condition). We tested whether feedback-related brain activities may increase in amplitude in the evaluation condition compared to the control condition – especially for athletes who report high performance-related anxiety. We focused on oscillations of sub-delta, delta, and theta frequency bands phase-locked to the feedback onset. Time-frequency analyses revealed that the magnitude of both the sub-delta component (0.3–1.2 Hz) and the theta component (4–8 Hz) were larger in incorrect than correct trials. In addition, the theta component was smaller for athletes high in sports anxiety than for athletes low in sports anxiety. The delta component was overall larger for correct than incorrect feedback. Further, athletes high in sports anxiety exhibited a larger delta component (1.5–3.5 Hz) for correct feedback in the evaluation condition than in the no-evaluation condition. Our results suggest that evaluation by others may increase the delta oscillation associated with correct feedback processing – especially among athletes high in sports anxiety.
Highlights
Sport behavior is a dynamic and efficient form of action
We examined the relationship between sports anxiety and neural responses to feedback signals in a time estimation task while performance was being evaluated and in a control condition
event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes were not modulated by evaluation in athletes with high sports anxiety, their decomposed delta band component for correct feedback was enhanced by evaluation
Summary
Sport behavior is a dynamic and efficient form of action. elite athletes exhibit enhanced and sophisticated movements during sporting competitions, some are prone to choke under pressure (i.e., perform worse than usual) due to anxiety that occurs preceding or during an important competition (Baumeister, 1984). One previous study suggests that neural correlates of performance monitoring may differ among athletes who are prone to choking under pressure (Masaki et al, 2017). Masaki et al (2017) found that the ERN was increased among athletes high in sports anxiety when performance of a spatial Stroop task was being evaluated by an experimenter, whereas it was not increased by performance evaluation for athletes low in sports anxiety. These results were in line with previous findings that the ERN was larger when subjects’ performance was being evaluated by others (Hajcak et al, 2005). Sports anxious athletes may show higher ACC sensitivity to their errors during evaluation or pressure compared to when they are not being evaluated
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