2026-09-01 00:00 Papers Foundations & Methods Source language EN

Researchers Find Basketball Players Show Stronger Brain Response When Imagining Shots

Summary Researchers recording EEG from 17 basketball players and 16 novices found that only the players showed a significant, sustained weakening of sensorimotor rhythms when imagining a shot or lifting a box, most clearly for an imagined free throw. This rhythm weakens during imagined movement and is commonly used as a marker of motor cortex engagement. Among the players, however, stronger imagery ability went with a smaller weakening, which may mean the brain was working more efficiently. The researchers conclude that neurofeedback training based on brain signals should not use one-size-fits-all targets but should account for a trainee's motor expertise and imagery ability. The study is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed.

Why it matters Motor imagery neurofeedback typically assumes a bigger signal change is better; if skilled imagers produce smaller changes, that default could penalize the very users it should reward, though the finding rests on a small sample.

BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — Only basketball experts showed significant and sustained sensorimotor rhythm event-related desynchronisation (SMR-ERD) while imagining movements, researchers affiliated with Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) reported in a preprint posted to bioRxiv on September 1, 2026 (DOI 10.64898/2026.08.26.747187). The work has not been peer reviewed.

Kinaesthetic motor imagery, rehearsing the felt sensation of a movement without performing it, is widely used in sport to improve performance. Neurofeedback, which feeds real-time brain signals back to the user, may support such training, but the best neural target to reinforce is unclear. SMR-ERD, thought to index sensorimotor cortex engagement, is one candidate, though earlier work has linked sport expertise to weaker SMR-ERD, possibly reflecting neural efficiency.

The team compared 17 basketball players with 16 people without formal basketball training. Questionnaires measured imagery ability and how often participants used it, while electroencephalography (EEG) quantified SMR-ERD as they imagined either a free throw, familiar only to the experts, or lifting a box, familiar to both groups.

Experts reported stronger and more frequent motor imagery. Their SMR-ERD exceeded that of novices specifically during the free throw. Within the expert group, however, higher imagery ability was associated with weaker SMR-ERD. The authors suggest sport expertise first boosts voluntary recruitment of sensorimotor networks, while greater imagery ability may later promote efficiency and reduce overall cortical activation.

They conclude that motor imagery-based neurofeedback training should be tailored to each user's sport expertise and imagery ability.

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biorxiv.org 2026-09-01

EEG Non-invasive BCI

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