A second before the arrow reaches the target, the brain's electrical activity already differs from its resting state

The summary today

Only one study has looked at it, in eleven adults who had never shot and who loosed a hundred arrows a day for three days with a 14 lb recurve at eight metres, wearing a sixty-four-channel EEG. The authors took two half-second windows before the arrow's impact, from 700 to 200 milliseconds and from 1,200 to 700, and compared them with rest, bow down and eyes on the target. Even in the earlier window, between 1.2 and 0.7 seconds before impact, theta and beta are lower and alpha higher than at rest, in all three sessions: the difference from rest does not appear only in the last half second. The drop in beta involves almost the whole cortex and the drop in theta slightly less in this window, while the rise in alpha is less widespread on the first two days. Three things limit what can be said. The comparison is with rest rather than with another phase of the shot, so the difference also contains the drawn bow and the effort of holding it; no window reaches back beyond 1,200 milliseconds, so nobody knows when the state begins; and these are complete beginners who raise and draw the bow on command, not trained archers.

Also phrased as: "when aiming really starts"; "the brain during aiming"; "brain waves before the release"; "eeg in archery"

Evidence

• 2022
  For Archers Published later

  11 adults with no experience, three sessions of 100 arrows with a 64-channel EEG: even in the window from 1,200 to 700 milliseconds before impact, theta and beta are lower and alpha higher than at rest in all three sessions (theta p < 0.001, 0.004 and < 0.001; alpha p = 0.012, 0.01 and < 0.001; beta p < 0.001 on all three days). The reference is the rest phase, bow down and eyes on the target, not another phase of the shot.

  Archery under the (electroencephalography-)hood: Theta-lateralization as a marker for motor learning · Stefan Rampp, Kai Spindler, Gesa Hartwigsen, Christian Scheller, Sebastian Simmermacher, Maximilian Scheer, et al.

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same study, how far the difference extends: the drop in theta and beta relative to rest involves almost every cortical region on all three days in the window closer to impact, and in the earlier one theta leaves out a few areas on the first two days, while the rise in alpha leaves out several areas on the first two days and only becomes widespread on the third. Each phase of the shot, called out by voice, lasted two to three seconds, and no shot had an aim shorter than the 1,200 milliseconds analysed.

  Archery under the (electroencephalography-)hood: Theta-lateralization as a marker for motor learning · Stefan Rampp, Kai Spindler, Gesa Hartwigsen, Christian Scheller, Sebastian Simmermacher, Maximilian Scheer, et al.

Status history

1. 2022 Reported The first and only study: eleven adults with no experience shoot a hundred arrows a day for three days wearing a sixty-four-channel EEG. Even in the window from 1,200 to 700 milliseconds before impact, theta and beta are lower and alpha higher than at rest, in all three sessions; the drop in beta covers almost the whole cortex and the drop in theta slightly less, while the rise in alpha is less widespread and varies from session to session. They are beginners learning to shoot, archers at their first arrows, the comparison is only with rest and no window comes before 1,200 milliseconds: reported.

Related

Related articles

• EEG and neuroscience in archery: the brain of the elite archerWhat EEG studies on archers show about the best arrows, differences between levels, theta in beginners and neurofeedback, and how far each finding holds.
• Aiming time: how long to hold, when to releaseHow long the aim lasts in research, whether holding longer costs points, what happens in the final seconds before release and whether the time limit is enough.

Research lines

• 30 studiesThe archer's brain: EEG, evoked potentials, fMRI and fNIRS
• 35 studiesTeaching and learning archery: sixty years of instructional trials

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