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This collaboration of Chair of Sport Psychology members Julia Schüler, Kim Stadler and Wanja Wolff with Lukas Thürmer (with the Chair for Organisational Studies) investigated the changes in prefrontal brain activity that occur during a sprint start sequence.

Successful performance in many sports hinges on a good start. This is particularly true in sprint running. Form a psychological point of view, a successful sprint start relies on self-control. Specifically, between the set-signal and the start-signal, athletes need to resist the impulse to start too early, while being prepared to initiate their sprint as swiftly as possible upon hearing the start-signal. In In line with this reasoning, the researchers observed cortical activation changes in self-control relevant brain areas. This is the first study to investigate cortical activity during sprint start performance and these findings substantiate the claim that sprint starts impose self-control demands.

At the chair of sport psychology, we are interested in the psychoneurophysiological correlates of self-controlled sports performance. Specifically, we are interested in how self-control demands covary with cortical activation and performance (click here to learn more).