Assessing the impact of neurocognitive load on trunk variability in athletes during a hopping task

Background

This study’s purpose was to evaluate the effect of a neurocognitive load on hop task movement variability and outcome.

Methods

Eighteen recreational and 18 NCAA Division 1 athletes performed 32 successful hopping trials in the absence and presence of a neurocognitive load. A 12-camera markerless motion analysis system recorded the hopping trials. The contact phase coordinate histories of the center of mass of the trunk (tCOM) of each hop were grouped according to presence or absence of neurocognitive load, hop direction, and hop number and the norm of the spanning set of the plus and minus 1 standard deviation curves were determined for each subject. Linear mixed models compared the load condition and athletic level and their interaction for each task outcome at a 0.05 alpha significance level.

Findings

An effect of load condition or athletic level was not present (p > .0.05) on the mean tCOM span set hop 1 or 2 contact phase norms. The tCOM variability does not appear to be affected by athletic level or neurocognitive load potentially indicating that tCOM is a key variable the neuromuscular system is attempting to control.

Interpretations

The stakes and stressors of the environment in which the athlete is being tasked with performing in should be heightened to ensure the nervous system is practicing the balance between safety and success.