Evidence for effects of neurofeedback training in sports on shaky grounds

It has been argued that brain oscillation patterns have a pivotal role in sport performance. A shining good example is the relationship between alpha oscillatory activity and shooting performance. In this example, a good execution is associated with activation in the brain’s right hemisphere, which is associated with visual-spatial processing, and, at the same time, decreased activation in the left temporal lobe, specifically in verbal-analytic areas, which is associated with a reduction of attention to stimuli and suppression of irrelevant information. Neurofeedback training (NFT), as a non-invasive method, that can be utilized for modifying human brain oscillations and developing skills for self-regulation of brain activity. Although NFT has been initially introduced and applied in clinical psychology, its applications are also common in sports in order to improve performance. This paper presentation provides a systematic review of NFT effectiveness in sports. Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses PRISMA-methodology, 16 published studies were selected and evaluated. The results indicated that the majority (81.25) of the studies reported that NFT effectively improves sport performance. Various protocols in various sport disciplines were tested and resulted in principally positive effects. However, the evaluated studies also showed substantial limitations in procedure and methodology. Therefore, it is still unknown whether NFT is an effective method to improve performance in sports. Shortcomings of these evaluated studies and implications for future research will be discussed.     «

It has been argued that brain oscillation patterns have a pivotal role in sport performance. A shining good example is the relationship between alpha oscillatory activity and shooting performance. In this example, a good execution is associated with activation in the brain’s right hemisphere, which is associated with visual-spatial processing, and, at the same time, decreased activation in the left temporal lobe, specifically in verbal-analytic areas, which is associated with a reduction of atte...     »