EEG Usage to Indicate Mental Imagery and Transition to Physical Activity

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this project was to determine if left-brain and right-brain hemisphere activity could be recorded on an EEG to indicate (left brain) mental imagery/preparation and transition to (right-brain) physical execution of a shot with clay target shooters. My hypothesis was that the EEG would indicate transition from left-brain type imagery to right-brain type physical execution of a shot. This has application as a sports medicine training tool in many types of sports where the athlete may be using a mental preparation tool immediately prior to the execution of whatever it is they may be performing. Methods/Materials To start this project, an Olympic shooter was #wired# by a technician with a simple 8 lead setup that would record activity on the left-brain and right-brain hemispheres only. The Olympic clay target shooter was then told to run through a performance enhancing mental imagery program with the EEG started. The shooter would execute shots and then return to the mental program in a sequence of 25 shots. Finally, the EEG data was captured and downloaded onto a notebook computer and later printed onto a left-right brain hemisphere tape showing the two areas only. Results When the tape was printed, the transition from left-brain to right-brain was very apparent in most areas. As the shooter began the mental program, there were Beta waves on the left-brain. The second the shooters performed the physical execution of the shot, the Alpha waves on the right-brain abruptly turned into Beta waves and activity on the left-brain stopped or subsided for a brief moment. Conclusions/Discussion In the end, my hypothesis was supported and I discovered that an EEG could be used to record a transition from left to right brain hemispheric activity. This would suggest that it may be a diagnostic tool used to help athletes employing a mental imagery program and physical performance. Future studies should employ higher quality EEG instrumentation and athletes of varying disciplines to examine these phenomena.

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1230

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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