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From Lab to Field Conditions: A Pilot Study on EEG Methodology in Applied Sports Sciences

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Abstract

Although neurophysiological aspects have become more important in sports and exercise sciences in the last years, it was not possible to measure cortical activity during performance outside a laboratory due to equipment limits or movement artifacts in particular. With this pilot study we want to investigate whether Electroencephalography (EEG) data obtained in a laboratory golf putting performance differ from a suitable putting task under field conditions. Therefore, parameters of the working memory (frontal Theta and parietal Alpha 2 power) were recorded during these two conditions. Statistical calculations demonstrated a significant difference only for Theta power at F4 regarding the two putting conditions “field” and “laboratory”. These findings support the idea that brain activity patterns obtained under laboratory conditions are comparable but not equivalent to those obtained under field conditions. Additionally, we were able to show that the EEG methodology seems to be a reliable tool to observe brain activity under field conditions in a golf putting task. However, considering the still existing problems of movement artifacts during EEG measurements, eligible sports and exercises are limited to those being relatively motionless during execution. Further studies are needed to confirm these pilot results.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Marcus Punte for his assistance during data acquisition and the participants from the University of Paderborn for their attendance of taking part in the study. A special thank goes to the Golf Academy at the University of Paderborn for infrastructural support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Exercise and Brain Laboratory, Institute of Sports Medicine, Department of Exercise and Health, University of Paderborn, Warburger Str. 100, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Kirsten Reinecke, Marjolijn Cordes, Christiane Lerch, Flora Koutsandréou, Michael Schubert, Michael Weiss & Jochen Baumeister

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  1. Kirsten Reinecke
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  2. Marjolijn Cordes
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  3. Christiane Lerch
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  4. Flora Koutsandréou
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  5. Michael Schubert
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  6. Michael Weiss
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  7. Jochen Baumeister
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Correspondence to Kirsten Reinecke.

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Reinecke, K., Cordes, M., Lerch, C. et al. From Lab to Field Conditions: A Pilot Study on EEG Methodology in Applied Sports Sciences. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 36, 265–271 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-011-9166-x

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