Novice Shooters With Lower Pre-shooting Alpha Power Have Better Performance During Competition in a Virtual Reality Scenario.

Michael Pereira,José Del R Millán,Anatole Lécuyer,Ferran Argelaguet

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00527

Abstract

Competition changes the environment for athletes. The difficulty of training for such stressful events can lead to the well-known effect of “choking” under pressure, which prevents athletes from performing at their best level. To study the effect of competition on the human brain, we recorded pilot electroencephalography (EEG) data while novice shooters were immersed in a realistic virtual environment representing a shooting range. We found a differential between-subject effect of competition on mu (8–12 Hz) oscillatory activity during aiming; compared to training, the more the subject was able to desynchronize his mu rhythm during competition, the better was his shooting performance. Because this differential effect could not be explained by differences in simple measures of the kinematics and muscular activity, nor by the effect of competition or shooting performance per se, we interpret our results as evidence that mu desynchronization has a positive effect on performance during competition.

Highlights

Experimental research in Virtual Reality (VR) has a lot of potential in different research fields such as experimental brain research, psychology (McClernon et al, 2011) and sports (Wellner et al, 2010)
Subjects were either alone in the shooting range or competing against six virtual avatars with loud background noises from a unsupportive audience
To previous reports, we did not find consistent differences in mu desynchronization for competition at the group level (Hatfield et al, 2013), nor did we find an effect for good versus bad shots (Del Percio et al, 2009), which could be due to the small sample size of our study

Summary

Introduction

Experimental research in Virtual Reality (VR) has a lot of potential in different research fields such as experimental brain research, psychology (McClernon et al, 2011) and sports (Wellner et al, 2010). VR simulation enables the accurate control and synchronization of all the elements involved in the experiment and ensures reproducibility and comparison among the different trials. In sport training scenarios, which are the main focus of the study presented in this paper, the VR simulation allows to immerse athletes in controlled and realistic virtual environments reproducing a competitive scenario (for instance in this study: a shooting range, competitors, and an audience) enabling the study of behavioral and physiological entangled processes (Argelaguet et al, 2015). Competition can have various effects on athletes’ performances. One such effect is “choking,” when athletes fail under pressure due to a stressing competitive environment. Competition can have beneficial effects, such as a “clutch” performance, when athletes perform overly well under pressure (Ehrlenspiel, 2006)

Methods

Results

Conclusion