TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of Unilateral Hand Contraction on the Persistence of Hemispheric Asymmetry of Cortical Activity
AU - Hirao, Takahiro
AU - Masaki, Hiroaki
N1 - Funding Information:
Some of the results of this study were presented at the 34th annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Physiological Psychology and Psychophysiology. This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research Grant Number 15K12657 and 17K20017 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a MEXT-Supported Program of the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2015–2019 (S1511017). We would like to thank Nao Asai for her help with the data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Hogrefe Publishing.
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Athletes who squeezed a ball with their left hand immediately prior to execution of sports activities did not show performance deterioration under severe pressure (Beckmann, Gröpel, & Ehrlenspiel, 2013). This result has been explained by priming of the dominant right hemisphere. However, it remains unclear what variables have the greatest effect on asymmetrical brain activity (e.g., duration and strength of ball squeezing). We hypothesized that squeezing a ball harder for a longer period might lead to stronger asymmetrical activity because motor-related areas would have increased activation due to the more forceful movement. We used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to investigate the hemispheric asymmetry of brain activity produced by squeezing a ball with a unilateral hand. EEGs were assessed during a baseline period as well as in eight experimental conditions wherein the strength and duration of the ball squeeze were manipulated. Our results showed that right-hemispheric-dominant brain activation was maximized when participants squeezed with their left hand a ball that had an internal pressure of 100 hPa for 90 s or 20 hPa for 30 s. Moreover, squeezing the ball with 100 hPa internal pressure for 90 s created a prominent interhemispheric asymmetry of cortical activity. We suspect that squeezing a ball strongly for a long period might be helpful in dealing with "choking" under pressure by producing greater right-hemispheric activation. This result could help improve simple methods for competitive athletes to reduce the likelihood of exhibiting choking behavior that could be practiced with minimal effort, even during short breaks during a game.
AB - Athletes who squeezed a ball with their left hand immediately prior to execution of sports activities did not show performance deterioration under severe pressure (Beckmann, Gröpel, & Ehrlenspiel, 2013). This result has been explained by priming of the dominant right hemisphere. However, it remains unclear what variables have the greatest effect on asymmetrical brain activity (e.g., duration and strength of ball squeezing). We hypothesized that squeezing a ball harder for a longer period might lead to stronger asymmetrical activity because motor-related areas would have increased activation due to the more forceful movement. We used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to investigate the hemispheric asymmetry of brain activity produced by squeezing a ball with a unilateral hand. EEGs were assessed during a baseline period as well as in eight experimental conditions wherein the strength and duration of the ball squeeze were manipulated. Our results showed that right-hemispheric-dominant brain activation was maximized when participants squeezed with their left hand a ball that had an internal pressure of 100 hPa for 90 s or 20 hPa for 30 s. Moreover, squeezing the ball with 100 hPa internal pressure for 90 s created a prominent interhemispheric asymmetry of cortical activity. We suspect that squeezing a ball strongly for a long period might be helpful in dealing with "choking" under pressure by producing greater right-hemispheric activation. This result could help improve simple methods for competitive athletes to reduce the likelihood of exhibiting choking behavior that could be practiced with minimal effort, even during short breaks during a game.
KW - asymmetrical cortical activity
KW - choking under pressure
KW - hemisphere-specific priming
KW - unilateral hand contraction
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U2 - 10.1027/0269-8803/a000215
DO - 10.1027/0269-8803/a000215
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047503170
VL - 33
SP - 119
EP - 126
JO - Journal of Psychophysiology
JF - Journal of Psychophysiology
SN - 0269-8803
IS - 2
ER -