title: Central neuronal motor behaviour in skilled and less skilled novices - Approaching sports-specific movement techniques.
abstract: Research on motor behavioural processes preceding voluntary movements often refers to analysing the readiness potential (RP). For this, decades of studies used laboratory setups with controlled sports-related actions. Further, recent applied approaches focus on athlete-non-athlete comparisons, omitting possible effects of training history on RP. However, RP preceding real sport-specific movements in accordance to skill acquisition remains to be elucidated. Therefore, after familiarization 16 right-handed males with no experience in archery volunteered to perform repeated sports-specific movements, i.e. 40 arrow-releasing shots at 60s rest on a 15m distant standard target. Continuous, synchronised EEG and right limb EMG recordings during arrow-releasing served to detect movement onsets for RP analyses over distinct cortical motor areas. Based on attained scores on target, archery novices were, a posteriori, subdivided into a skilled and less skilled group. EMG results for mean values revealed no significant changes (all p>0.05), whereas RP amplitudes and onsets differed between groups but not between motor areas. Arrow-releasing preceded larger RP amplitudes (p<0.05) and later RP onsets (p<0.05) in skilled compared to less skilled novices. We suggest this to reflect attentional orienting and greater effort that accompanies central neuronal preparatory states of a sports-specific movement.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: t.vogt@dshs-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa City, Saitama 359-1192, Japan.
authors.forename: Kouki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany; Faculty for Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, 4558 Maroochydore DC QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: Institute of Outdoor Sports and Environmental Science, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Türk
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa City, Saitama 359-1192, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanosue
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D056352:Athletes; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Archery; EEG; EMG; Readiness potential; Sensorimotor; Skill acquisition