Abstract
We examined whether the alpha-band coherence between the T7-Fz (verbal analytical-motor planning) brain areas were related to superior performance in sports. We searched for related papers across eight databases: ProQuest Central, ProQuest Psychology Journals, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science using relevant keywords (i.e., EEG AND sports AND coherence). Seven studies, with a total of 194 participants, met our inclusion criteria and were shortlisted for statistical analysis. We compared EEG coherence data for both within-subject and between-subject experimental designs. Our analysis revealed that athletes had lower coherence in the T7-Fz brain pathway for alpha- band activation (Hedges’ g = − 0.54; p = 0.03) when performing better. Theoretically, these results corroborate the notion that athletes become more “neurally efficient” as the verbal and motor areas of their brains function more independently, i.e., the neural efficiency hypothesis. Accordingly, athletes who can limit verbal interference are more likely to perform a sporting task successfully.
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The data used to conduct analysis is publicly available and the process used for data extraction is explained in the manuscript.
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Dhruv Raman (first author) conducted primary data search, extraction and manuscript writing; Edson Filho (lastauthor) supervised project, conducted data analysis, manuscript writing and editing.
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Raman, D., Filho, E. The relationship between T7-Fz alpha coherence and peak performance in self-paced sports: a meta-analytical review. Exp Brain Res 242, 1253–1265 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-024-06833-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-024-06833-8