title: The influence of social evaluation on cerebral cortical activity and motor performance: a study of "Real-Life" competition.
abstract: Motor performance in a social evaluative environment was examined in participants (N = 19) who completed a pistol shooting task under both performance-alone (PA) and competitive (C) conditions. Electroencephalographic (EEG), autonomic, and psychoendocrine activity were recorded in addition to kinematic measures of the aiming behavior. State anxiety, heart rate, and cortisol were modestly elevated during C and accompanied by relative desynchrony of high-alpha power, increased cortico-cortical communication between motor and non-motor regions, and degradation of the fluency of aiming trajectory, but maintenance of performance outcome (i.e., score). The findings reveal that performance in a complex social-evaluative environment characterized by competition results in elevated cortical activity beyond that essentially required for motor performance that translated as less efficient motor behavior.
authors: Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland at College Park, School of Public Health, USA; Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences Program, University of Maryland at College Park, USA. Electronic address: bhatfiel@umd.edu.
authors: Bradley D
authors: BD
authors: Hatfield
authors: Michelle E
authors: ME
authors: Costanzo
authors: Ronald N
authors: RN
authors: Goodman
authors: Li-Chuan
authors: LC
authors: Lo
authors: Hyuk
authors: H
authors: Oh
authors: Jeremy C
authors: JC
authors: Rietschel
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Saffer
authors: Trent
authors: T
authors: Bradberry
authors: Jose
authors: J
authors: Contreras-Vidal
authors: Amy
authors: A
authors: Haufler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D064232:Visual Analog Scale; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Competition; EEG; Human performance; Social evaluation