Neuroscience With Chapter 4 07 19 2010 Overview of Presentation 1 Superior athletic performance is typically associated with economical effort and metabolic cost 2 This efficiency principle is well established in the physical domain but also appears to characterize the psychological domain Hatfield and Hillman 2001 evidence will be provided to support the latter 3 Accordingly it is proposed that cerebral cortical economy of associative processes reduces potential interface with subcortical and cortical motor control processes and enables consistency of quality movement patterns that have been achieved through practice The Mind Body Link Psychology Physiology Biomechanics A Increase in muscle tension B Increase in autonomic arousal C Increase in hormonal activity Why is he so skilled at psychomotor behavior Tiger Woods controls his anxiety or cognitive and affective cortical activity A This controls motor cortex activity and prevents excess tension B This also controls the fight or flight response C This controls hormonal response This results in optimal arousal Muscle Structure What gets the work done Endpoint of all of our movements Excessive Brain Activity Causes 1 Increased recruitment of motor units 2 Decreased coordination Agonist muscle we want to do work and Antagonistic opposite Action Efficiency Motor Unit One motor neuron and the muscle cells or fibers that it innervates o 1 Motor neuron causing the muscle to contract o 2 Neuron contained in grey area of spinal column Added motor units more force and more information from the brain The influence of the limbic structures on the motor cortex could result in increased corticospinal outflow beyond that associated with the pure physical demands of the task This would result in recruitment of additional motor units may be good or bad Functions of the Limbic System Fear Flight Fight Driving Motivation for Survival Food Mating Motorneuron firing increases Ergonomic demands posture work Emotional Elaboration emotional systems are ramping it up The Mental State Affects the Physical State The mind becomes aroused The activity increases motor cortex activity There is increased outflow to the skeletal muscles Results in increased tension or motor unit activation Changes in force Changes in speed timing and range of motion So Activity in the brain directly affects motor unit activation more activity in the motor cortex may causes greater activity and less consistency in muscular activity A focused and confident state of mind results in efficient motor cortex activation and results in efficient more consistency in muscular activity A great athlete is a consistent athlete mental consistency promotes physical consistency Reciprocal Inhibition RI The muscle that shortens and generates force for limb movement e g elbow flexion is called the agonist The muscle that opposes the action of the agonist is termed the antagonist Through the processes of reciprocal inhibition the antagonist relaxes and lengthens to allow freedom of motion for limb movement e g elbow flexion Therefore reciprocal inhibition enables fluid motion and adequate range of motion ROM Three Major Functions of the Cerebral Cortex All Interconnected Sensation receipt of environmental stimulation Motor control of movement Associative o Cognition or thinking o Affect or emotion Anxiety can disrupt reciprocal inhibition and generate excess tension Cognition and Motor Control This is what happens when a green slumping injury plagued offense simply lacks the tools to score runs and a pitcher even a veteran who should know better thinks he has to be near perfect to have a chance The leadoff hitter triples with no outs in the fourth inning of a scoreless game and the pitcher tries to dial up something extra because he thinks he has to and instead throws off his mechanics Sheinin Washington Post April 30 D1 Pat Hentgen rethinks pitch selection after Koskie s 2 run homer Work Stress and Musculoskeletal Activity Interrelated diagram from Associate Processes cognitive and affective and Quality of movement motor unit activity Summary of Generalized Coaching Principles from deVries and Housh 1994 1 Elimiate unnecessary movements 2 Eliminate unnecessary muscle action 3 Make all movements in the correct direction 4 Apply only the necessary amount of power too forceful an effort is usually a waste This means do not unnecessarily activate motor units Optimal Performance Efficient Coordinated Comments by Coach Robert Zuppke Grange was a genius of motion He ran with no wasted motion like Eddie Tolan Michigan s Olympic sprint champion of 32 I once made a trip to the Kaibab Forest on the edge of the Grand Canyon as a deer ran out onto the grass plains I said There goes Red Grange The freedom of movement was so similar to Red s Speed instinct and the love of contact Effects on Performance Simple physical skills will be aided Complex skills will be reduced in quality because of loss of fine motor control A Brain to Muscle Cerebral cortex cognition Limbic System emotional activation Brainstem Spinal Cord Ascending Reticular Activating system ARAS Sensory stimuli o Visual o Auditory o Proprioceptive recruitment Sequence A Tension and loss of reciprocal inhibition excess motor unit Ego uncertainty and fear of failure results in state anxiety Motor cortex becomes hyper excited Excessive activation of motor units in agonists and antagonists Movement kinematics are altered but may only be problematic for Increased force production fine as opposed to gross motor skills Emotion Fear can hit the body in many places B Fight or Flight Cannon 1929 Increased heart rate Sympathetic Nervous System influence Increased blood pressure Increased liver release of glucose Increased dilation of bronchioles in lungs Increased release of adrenaline epinephrine Energy may be spent too quickly for endurance athletes B Autonomic Arousal Cerebral cortex cognition Limbic system emotional activation Hypothalamus Sympathetic branch of the Autonomic nervous system releases norepinephrine at most nerve endings Activation of visceral organs and vasculature Adrenal medullae releases epinephrine and norepinephrine into circulating blood Nervous Systems Heart o Inotrophic heart beating harder more complete o Chronotrophic speeding up the heart Liver release glucose Lungs o Bronchiole dilation Surface vessels Deep vessels Adrenal core medulla middle means core releases epinephrine Sequence B Ego uncertainty and fear of failure