Predicting the fate of basketball throws: a psychophysics and EEG study in healthy and paraplegics athletes

Elite athletes can predict successful free shots more rapidly and accurately, with cues of body kinematics, also reflected in their motor activation for successful and unsuccessful shots (Aglioti et al., 2008). Psychophysics studies indicate that paraplegic athletes may fine tune their ability to process pictures of body parts involved in the practiced sport (Pernigo et al, 2012). Here we explored the behavioral and electrocortical underpinnings of wheelchair athletes who predict the fate of throws to basket performed by paraplegic athletes. Using EEG, we searched for the possible electrocortical correlates of observing domain specific actions and predicting their outcome. Expert wheelchair basketball (WCB) players with two levels of physical movement capability were chosen (Points 1 and 4; former with most severe disability, least trunk movement and latter with least severe disability, most trunk movement). Thus far no study has focused on the AON modulation contingent upon expertise and severity injury in people with body-brain somatosensory and motor disconnection. 10 athletes and 19 healthy participants observed free throw videos (“IN” – correct movement execution; "OUT" – incorrect movement execution). They were asked to predict the outcome of the shot which was occluded by a black screen. Preliminary behavioral results highlight a significantly higher performance for the expert players to detect the error in OUT shots, while the healthy subjects only were able to predict shot outcomes at chance level. Furthermore, the players had significantly stronger P300 response compared to naïve healthy subjects over parietal electrodes, both for IN and for OUT videos. Moreover, the P300 response was greater for Point 4 players, which are not only experts, but also have a wider range of motor representations due to less injury, compared to Point 1 players. This suggests that the P300 modulation might be a correlate of motor expertise during action observation.