Action Anticipation & Motor Resonance in Elite Basketball players : Nature Neuroscience
Hat-tip to: The Frontal Cotex blog
Athletes predicted the success of free shots at a basket earlier and more accurately than did individuals with comparable visual experience (coaches or sports journalists) and novices.
…suggesting that athletes predicted the basket shot’s fate by reading the body kinematics.
…only athletes showed a time-specific motor activation during observation of erroneous basket throws.
Results suggest that achieving excellence in sports may be related to the fine-tuning of specific anticipatory ‘resonance’ mechanisms that endow elite athletes’ brains with the ability to predict others’ actions ahead of their realization.