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Sensori-Motor Rhythm Neurofeedback Increases Fine Motor Skills in Elite Racket Sport Athletes

Trevor Brown1*, Graham Jamieson1 and Nick Cooper2
  • 1 University of New England, Australia
  • 2 University of Essex, United Kingdom

Neurofeedback (NFB) consists of operant conditioning of targeted components of the EEG in real time to alter underlying cortical oscillation. To investigate the hypothesis that NFB training to enhance the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR: 12-15 Hz) of the lateralised motor cortex controlling the dominant hand will facilitate accuracy of fine motor performance, ten elite (British national squad) table tennis players were measured on service accuracy before and after SMR NFB or mock-NFB training. Due to low statistical power most results were at trend (p<.1) significance level. However large effect sizes were obtained for linear trends of SMR band power across within-session trials suggesting the presence of a training effect at the cortical level. Importantly this was supported by behavioural results for service accuracy which showed a trend for increased accuracy across training sessions in the real as compared to the mock NFB training group, also with a large effect size. The SMR protocol used here shows promise as a training tool to further improve the performance of fine motor skills in elite athletes. Further research is needed however, to address the power issue and to determine the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for performance enhancement.


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Keywords: Neurofeedback, athlete performance enhancement, EEG, SMR, fine-motor skills

Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Motor

Citation: Brown T, Jamieson G and Cooper N (2012). Sensori-Motor Rhythm Neurofeedback Increases Fine Motor Skills in Elite Racket Sport Athletes. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00022

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Received: 25 Oct 2012; Published Online: 07 Nov 2012.

* Correspondence: Mr. Trevor Brown, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, trevorbro@hotmail.com