What is it about?
We were interested in how the brain processes the actions of other players in a fast-moving interactive game like soccer. The step-over move is an effective way for a soccer player to confuse and evade a defender. Using fMRI we identified differences in brain responses to detecting deception and detecting the future direction of play, and in brain responses of highly-skilled and less-skilled players. Overall, players were better at identifying when a move was deceptive than they were at identifying the future ball direction of a deceptive play.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
It underlines the effectiveness of deceptive skills such as the step-over move even against skilled opponents and suggests that effort spent in developing these skills - and in responding to players who exhibit these skills - is worthwhile. Therefore it has implications for coaching and training in sports like soccer.
Perspectives
From a neuroscience perspective, sport represents an excellent test-bed for understanding how the brain works.
Michael Wright
Brunel University London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Brain regions concerned with the identification of deceptive soccer moves by higher-skilled and lower-skilled players, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, January 2013, Frontiers,
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00851.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
