With its rapid movement and high-scoring potential basketball is the ideal sport for neuroscientists to study writes, Kalyn Potter, Department of Psychology 
     

    450 million people worldwide play basketball and the sport, first introduced in Ireland in the 1920s, is now one of the top six team sports in the country and the top sport for under 16 girls. But what does basketball have to do with your brain?

    Optimal performance is what athletes train for. Talent and effort come together across all sports and are enacted on a court, pitch or track. The visible effort is physical but, truthfully, sport demands a huge cognitive effort as well.

    In basketball, players require and train to focus attention on the job at hand, yet the task is notably complex. They must dribble, pivot, pass and shoot, all the while being cognisant of the specific play, their coaches' instructions, the location of teammates and opponents and the time on the clock. The game supports rapid information processing and decision making. Based on other’s movements, a player must quickly be able to process and assess "do I need to shoot higher, feign, pass?", and must build barriers to distraction, such as the fans standing up and cheering loudly or a sudden hush.

    Neurology lies behind the ability to dribble adeptly and to shoot without hesitation. Both of these rely on coordination of the motor system, the application of procedural memory (for action as opposed to events), and unconscious calculations of simply geometry that inform the movement taking place.

    These physical movements are drilled into motor memory by way of neural processes, but the remaining action results from real time, powerful brain performance. Memory is vital to success in being able to recall the current play, while leveraging past knowledge to judge in the moment action, such as recalling a direct opponent's weakness and applying that as an advantage.

    Yet another key cognitive asset for a player is emotion regulation, which results from their decision-making network's capacity to overcome the flood of hormones and neurotransmitters from their emotion response center - the amygdala. The effort of focus, impulse control, information processing and rapid decision making is attributed to the frontal lobes – the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the brain’s decision-making network, often referred to as the leadership network or the brain’s CEO.

    While a dive into the brain performance literature can leave you with a more profound respect for athletic performance, the opportunities for performance and cognitive stimulation don’t end at the court boundaries. As a spectator, they extend to you. Attention and visual acuity are crucial to staying with the flow of a basketball game and to catching the most shocking plays and moments of intensity.

    Due to its rapid cross court movement and high-scoring potential, basketball was found to be the optimal medium for neuroscientists to learn about the cognitive mechanisms of surprise. Kenneth Norman and colleagues at Princeton observed a cohort of fans during the NCAA's March Madness. The use of eye tracking and fMRI allowed them to gain an understanding of the neural mechanisms behind the varying types of surprise experienced by the brain.

    While it can exist on its own, surprise is a precursor to awe, such as witnessing awe-inspiring human performance in action, which carries additional cognitive impacts. The experience of awe is linked to enhanced cognitive performance capacity and greater cognitive flexibility across the brain's central executive and default mode networks. The awe experienced in the aftermath of a heart-stopping play, the sense of connection and vibrant energy permeating a sea of fans, sharing in the elating joy of the game, are not only underpinned by neurological mechanisms and principles, but can be trained as pathways to brain health and cognitive performance.

    The almost tangible energy experienced at a game is not just in your mind either. Sport is engaging and has a high potential for comradeship, connection and community, which are shown more and more to impact your entire physiology and critically factor into long-term cognitive health and performance.

    In Texas, the Center for BrainHealth (CBH) works closely with NBA teams, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs, to apply neuroscience towards fostering better brain health for sports teams, their fan base and the larger community. The Center is a translational neuroscience research institute focused on better understanding how we can cultivate brain health performance across the lifespan. Housed within the organisation is The BrainHealth Project, a virtual and international research study that provides tools for you to become a competitive brain athlete off the court and in your every day.

    This proactive focus on performance is contagious, much like the energy in the stands. During CBH's inaugural BrainHealth Week, a panel discussion highlighted The Rock at La Cantera, the Spurs' newly funded center that will promote human performance research. It's a place where we can expect to learn more about pathways to reach full performance potential, physically and cognitively.

    At the intersection of the NBA and neuroscience lives enhanced performance potential for athletes and beyond. Greater understanding is on the horizon, but you can make a difference armed with what you now know. So whether you engage as a player or as a fan, how are you planning to perform today?