BRAIN SLOW POTENTIALS REFLECTING SUCCESSFUL SHOOTING PERFORMANCE

Preparatory brain activity from frontal, centro-lateral, and occipital areas were recorded from top-level rifle shooters during shooting per formance. The aim of the study was to examine the relation of brain sl ow potentials to qualitative (rifle holding) and quantitative (hit) as pects of superior shooting performance. For this purpose, a typology o f slow potentials (SPs) was developed. The resulting SP types were use d for unraveling the associations between the electrocortical activity and behavioral output. The main finding was that frontal positivity w as associated with successful performance, but only if the central-rig ht SP was more negative than the central-left one. This finding was ex plained as showing that, in the case of superior performance, a shoote r is able to refrain from irrelevant motor activity (frontal positivit y) and concomitantly concentrate on the visual-spatial processing (rig ht-sided negativity). In all, the present experiment suggests that the SPs are consistently related to the covert aspects of shooting perfor mance, which lack an overt manifestation. At the practical level, this means that the SPs provide a tool for accessing information concernin g the optimal balance between visual-spatial targeting and motor activ ity which can make a valuable contribution to the understanding of sup erior shooting performance.