You can't teach speed: sprinters falsify the deliberate practice model of expertise

Neural efficiency and proficiency adaptation of effective connectivity corresponding to early and advanced skill levels in athletes of racket sports

This study explored how the neural efficiency and proficiency worked in athletes with different skill levels from the perspective of effective connectivity brain network in resting state. The deconvolved conditioned Granger causality (GC) analysis was applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of 35 elite athletes (EAs) and 42 student-athletes (SAs) of racket sports as well as 39 normal controls (NCs), to obtain the voxel-wised hemodynamic response function (HRF) parameters representing the functional segregation and effective connectivity representing the functional integration. The results showed decreased time-to-peak of HRF in the visual attention brain regions in the two athlete groups compared with NC and decreased response height in the advanced motor control brain regions in EA comparing to the nonelite groups, suggesting the neural efficiency represented by the regional HRF was different in early and advanced skill levels. GC analysis demonstrated that the GC values within the middle occipital gyrus had a linear trend from negative to positive, suggesting a stepwise "neural proficiency" of the effective connectivity from NC to SA then to EA. The GC values of the inter-lobe circuits in EA had the trend to regress to NC levels, in agreement with the neural efficiency of these circuits in EA. Further feature selection approach suggested the important role of the cerebral-brainstem GC circuit for discriminating EA. Our findings gave new insight into the complementary neural mechanisms in brain functional segregation and integration, which was associated with early and advanced skill levels in athletes of racket sports.

Expertise- and Tempo-Related Performance Differences in Unimanual Drumming

BACKGROUND

High-speed drumming requires precise control over the timing, velocity, and magnitude of striking movements.

AIM

To examine effects of tempo and expertise on unaccented repetitive drumming performance using 3D motion capture.

METHODS

Expert and amateur drummers performed unimanual, unaccented, repetitive drum strikes, using their dominant right hand, at five different tempi. Performance was examined with regard to timing variability, striking velocity variability, the ability to match the prescribed tempo, and additional variables.

RESULTS

Permutated multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed significant main effects of tempo (p < .001) and expertise (p <.001) on timing variability and striking velocity variability; low timing variability and low striking velocity variability were associated with low/medium tempo as well as with increased expertise. Individually, improved precision appeared across an optimum tempo range. Precision was poorest at maximum tempo (400 hits per minute) for precision variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Expert drummers demonstrated greater precision and consistency than amateurs. Findings indicate an optimum tempo range that extends with increased expertise.

Early Specialization and Critical Periods in Acquiring Expertise: A Comparison of Traditional Versus Detection Talent Identification in Team GB Cycling at London 2012

The aim of this study was to compare two methodologies employed by the British Cycling talent identification program. Specifically, the authors investigated cyclists selected to represent GB cycling team at the London 2012 Olympics using (a) a traditional talent identification methodology (British Cycling Olympic Development Program), where selection is based upon race results and (b) a detection talent identification methodology (U.K. Sport Talent Team Program), which is a multi-Olympic event initiative that identifies athletic potential from physical and skill-based tests. To facilitate this comparison, the authors calculated the speed with which expertise was acquired. A Mann–Whitney U test (U = 16.0, p = .031) indicated that the speed of acquiring expertise was quicker in detection talent identification (Mdn = 5.4) than traditional talent identification (Mdn = 7.2). Practice started later with detection talent identification than with traditional talent identification (14.12 years vs. 11.23 years, respectively), which affected the period to excellence. Thus, detection talent identification resulted in an absence of early specialization, which suggests a critical period for attaining cycling expertise. The authors hypothesize a genetic basis of talent and propose that critical periods are important in detection talent identification programs.

Altered dynamics of functional connectivity density associated with early and advanced stages of motor training in tennis and table tennis athletes

Until now, knowledge about the effects of motor training on the temporal dynamics of the brain functional organization is still limited. Here we combined dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) mapping and k-means clustering analyses to explore how early and advanced stages of motor training affected the brain dynamic FC architecture and dynamic states in little-ball athletes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of student-athletes (SA), elite athletes (EA) and non-athlete healthy controls (NC). The ANOVA analysis demonstrated the levels of dFCD variability in the EA group had the trend to regress to the NC group levels in all statistically significant regions. Specifically, the brain regions responsible for the basic motor and sensory innervations showed more stabilized dFCD variability in EA and NC compared with SA. The results supported the idea of a stronger efficiency of functional networks and an automation process of new motor skills in EA. Furthermore, EA and NC had the increased dFCD variability in brain regions responsible for top-down visual-motor control compared with SA; while EA exhibited more flexible alterations in FCD status levels and the equilibrium probability in the long run compared with SA and NC. This suggested that regions involved in higher functions of visual-motor control exhibited more flexibility in functional regulation with other brain networks in EA. Our findings suggested the diversity and specialization of fluctuating dynamic brain adaption induced by motor training in different training stages, and highlighted the effect of motor training stages on brain functional adaption.

The Racer's Mind-How Core Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise Is Reflected in Deliberate Practice Procedures in Professional Motorsport

The exceptional performance of elite practitioners in domains like sports or chess is not a reflection of just exceptional general cognitive ability or innate sensorimotor superiority. Decades of research on expert performance has consistently shown that experts in all fields go to extraordinary lengths to acquire their perceptual-cognitive and motor abilities. Deliberate Practice (DP) refers to special (sub)tasks that are designed to give immediate and accurate feedback and performed repetitively with the explicit goal of improving performance. DP is generally agreed to be one of the key ingredients in acquisition of expertise (not necessarily the only one). Analyzing in detail the specific aspects of performance targeted by DP procedures may shed light on the underlying cognitive processes that support expert performance. Document analysis of professional coaching literature is one knowledge elicitation method that can be used in the early phases of inquiry to glean domain information about the skills experts in a field are required to develop. In this study this approach is applied to the domain of motor racing - specifically the perceptual-cognitive expertise enabling high-speed curve negotiation. A systematic review procedure is used to establish a corpus of texts covering the entire 60 years of professional motorsport textbooks. Descriptions of specific training procedures (that can be unambiguously interpreted as DP procedures) are extracted, and then analyzed within the hierarchical task analysis framework driver modeling. Hypotheses about the underlying cognitive processes are developed on the basis of this material. In the traditional psychological literature, steering and longitudinal control are typically considered “simple” reactive tracking tasks (model-free feedback control). The present findings suggest that—as in other forms expertise—expert level driving skill is in fact dependent on vast body of knowledge, and driven by top-down information. The knowledge elicitation in this study represents a first step toward a deeper psychological understanding of the complex cognitive underpinnings of expert performance in this domain.

Toward a multifactorial model of expertise: beyond born versus made

The debate over the origins of individual differences in expertise has raged for over a century in psychology. The "nature" view holds that expertise reflects "innate talent"-that is, genetically determined abilities. The "nurture" view counters that, if talent even exists, its effects on ultimate performance are negligible. While no scientist takes seriously a strict nature-only view of expertise, the nurture view has gained tremendous popularity over the past several decades. This environmentalist view holds that individual differences in expertise reflect training history, with no important contribution to ultimate performance by innate ability ("talent"). Here, we argue that, despite its popularity, this view is inadequate to account for the evidence concerning the origins of expertise that has accumulated since the view was first proposed. More generally, we argue that the nature versus nurture debate in research on expertise is over-or certainly should be, as it has been in other areas of psychological research for decades. We describe a multifactorial model for research on the nature and nurture of expertise, which we believe will provide a progressive direction for future research on expertise.

Population Muscle Strength Predicts Olympic Medal Tallies: Evidence from 20 Countries in the PURE Prospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

National sporting achievement at the Olympic Games is important for national pride and prestige, and to promote participation in sport. Summer Olympic Games medal tallies have been associated with national wealth, and also social development and healthcare expenditure. It is uncertain however, how these socioeconomic factors translate into Olympic success. The objective of this study was therefore to examine the relationship between population muscle strength and Olympic medal tallies.

METHODS AND RESULTS

This study of handgrip strength represents a cross-sectional analysis of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, which is an ongoing population cohort study of individuals from high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Within participating countries, households from both urban and rural communities were invited to participate using a sampling strategy intended to yield a sample that was representative of the community. Households were eligible if at least one member was aged 35-70 years and if they intended living at the same address for a further four years. A total of 152,610 participants from these households, located in 21 countries, were included in this analysis. Handgrip strength was measured using a Jamar dynanometer. Olympic medal tallies were made over the five most recent Summer Games. There was a significant positive association between national population grip strength (GS) and medal tally that persisted after adjustment for sex, age, height, average daily caloric intake and GDP (total and per capita). For every 1kg increase in population GS, the medal tally increased by 36% (95% CI 13-65%, p = 0.001) after adjustment. Among countries that won at least one medal over the four most recent Summer Olympic Games, there was a close linear relationship between adjusted GS and the natural logarithm of the per capita medal tally (adjusted r = 0.74, p = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

Population muscle strength may be an important determinant of Summer Olympic Games medal success. Further research is needed to understand whether population muscle strength is modifiable, and whether this can improve Olympic medal success. Extreme outcomes may reflect the average attributes of the population from which the individual experiencing the extreme outcome is drawn.

Can a surgeon drill accurately at a specified angle?

Objectives

To investigate whether a surgeon can drill accurately a specified angle and whether surgeon experience, task repetition, drill bit size and perceived difficulty influence drilling angle accuracy.

Methods

The sample population consisted of final-year students (n=25), non-specialist veterinarians (n=22) and board-certified orthopaedic surgeons (n=8).

Each participant drilled a hole twice in a horizontal oak plank at 30°, 45°, 60°, 80°, 85° and 90° angles with either a 2.5  or a 3.5 mm drill bit. Participants then rated the perceived difficulty to drill each angle. The true angle of each hole was measured using a digital goniometer.

Results

Greater drilling accuracy was achieved at angles closer to 90°. An error of ≤±4° was achieved by 84.5 per cent of participants drilling a 90° angle compared with approximately 20 per cent of participants drilling a 30–45° angle. There was no effect of surgeon experience, task repetition or drill bit size on the mean error for intended versus achieved angle. Increased perception of difficulty was associated with the more acute angles and decreased accuracy, but not experience level.

Clinical significance

This study shows that surgeon ability to drill accurately (within ±4° error) is limited, particularly at angles ≤60°. In situations where drill angle is critical, use of computer-assisted navigation or custom-made drill guides may be preferable.

The Racer's Brain - How Domain Expertise is Reflected in the Neural Substrates of Driving

A fundamental question in human brain plasticity is how sensory, motor, and cognitive functions adapt in the process of skill acquisition extended over a period of many years. Recently, there has emerged a growing interest in cognitive neuroscience on studying the functional and structural differences in the brains of elite athletes. Elite performance in sports, music, or the arts, allows us to observe sensorimotor and cognitive performance at the limits of human capability. In this mini-review, we look at driving expertise. The emerging brain imaging literature on the neural substrates of real and simulated driving is reviewed (for the first time), and used as the context for interpreting recent findings on the differences between racing drivers and non-athlete controls. Also the cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience of expertise are discussed.

Surgical Skill: Trick or Trait?

OBJECTIVE

Among other indispensible qualities, a competent surgeon needs to be technically skilled. With the advent of minimally invasive procedures, technical demands on surgeons also increase. Will it be possible for all individuals to meet these technical demands through motivated practice or is there a trait such as "aptitude" that determines ultimate surgical skill?

DESIGN

Baseline laparoscopic psychomotor aptitude (on a box trainer), visual-spatial aptitude (Schlauch figures test), and interest in surgery (10-point Likert scale) were measured in our study group. Afterward, study participants attended a 3-hour hands-on laparoscopy training, followed by 2 additional weeks of voluntary practice for those who were motivated to do so. After these 2 weeks, participants were retested using the laparoscopic box trainer.

SETTING

All research was performed in the Center for Surgical Technologies, Leuven.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 68 fifth-year medical students without prior experience in laparoscopy from the University of Leuven.

RESULTS

Multiple additive regression analysis showed significant effect for psychomotor aptitude (26%), interest in surgery (9%), and voluntary practice (18%) on final box trainer performance. No correlation was found between aptitude and interest in surgery (p = 0.27). No correlation was found between aptitude and amount of voluntary practice. High-aptitude students more frequently applied for surgical disciplines in their final career choice (50% vs 18%, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that aptitude and motivated practice equally influence final box trainer performance. Students with lower aptitude do not automatically train more. Although the interest in surgery was initially not related to psychomotor aptitude, eventually students with high aptitude apply more frequently for a surgical career.