The Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Superior Athletic Performance

Abstract

Sport is a pervasive phenomenon throughout the world and is characterized by three major elements: psychomotor skills, institutionalized rules for competition, and public evaluation of the competitive process and outcome. This chapter explains superior performance by discussion of the brain processes associated with expert performance, how the brain and performance are affected by mental stress, and how resilience mediates the relationship between mental stress and cognitive-motor behavior to preserve superior performance. It discusses the types of models: neural, psychomotor, and net efficiency, the measurement of brain dynamics, cognitive inference from brain activity, brain dynamics of expert-novice comparisons, and practice-induced changes in brain dynamics and translation to performance. The chapter also discusses the impact of mental stress on brain activity and performance, brain processes underlying resilience to mental stress, the influence of trust and team dynamics on brain performance, and a summary and identification of future directions in this area of study.

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