Real-Time Concurrent Neurophysiological Responses to Dynamic In-Motion Physical and Cognitive Functional Tasks in Division I Athletes.

Background: Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) offers sports medicine clinicians insight into the neurophysiological connection between the brain and musculoskeletal system. Dysregulation in the brain's neural state has been linked with altered biomechanical and/or musculoskeletal performance associated injury; however, comparative benchmark data among uninjured athletes without brain and/or musculoskeletal injury remain limited.

Hypothesis: Evaluating real-time qEEG neurophysiological and physiometric neurological brain responses while performing physical and cognitive functional tasks will offer clinicians performance insight to the neuromuscular preparedness in healthy Division I athletes.

Study design: Descriptive prospective case series.

Level of evidence: Level IV.

Methods: A total of 24 healthy female (n = 11) and male (n = 13) National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes from multiple sports volunteered to participate in a qEEG neurophysiological and functional task assessment. A 21-channel Dry headset collected neurophysiological brain wave activity representing participants' level of attention, workload and sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) pre- and post-physical and cognitive tasks. Physiometric dependent variables included heartrate, respiration rate, heartrate variability, galvanic skin response, trapezius electromyography and peripheral temperature. Participants had no diagnosed attention deficits, learning impairments, and/or orthopaedic injuries.

Results: Healthy Division I athletes had balanced/regulated neurophysiological levels of change in neurophysiological activity. Brain connectivity, attention, and workload metrics were significantly higher in men (P ≤ 0.05). There were no sex or hemisphere differences at baseline for SMR; however, there were significant SMR differences pre- to post- for motor imagery tasks (P ≤ 0.05). There were relatively strong positive correlations between brain activity and physiometric performance (0.81-0.85), as well as, brain symmetry, workload, and attention (0.65-0.85).

Conclusion: Real-time qEEG brain mapping of neurophysiological and physiometric responses during functional and cognitive tasks provide standard performance benchmarks for healthy, Division I athletes.

Clinical relevance: Monitoring qEEG neurophysiological and physiometric benchmarks of healthy athletes can offer clinicians performance insight into neuromuscular preparedness.