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First published online on October 18, 2007.
Copyright © 2007 by The Physiological Society
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jphysiol.2007.141630v1
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Received July 27, 2007
Revised August 22, 2007
Accepted after revision October 10, 2007

Golf putt outcomes are predicted by sensorimotor cerebral EEG rhythms

Claudio Babiloni1, Claudio Del Percio2*, Marco Iacoboni3, Francesco Infarinato4, Roberta Lizio5, Nicola Marzano5, Gianluca Crespi6, Federica Dassù6, Mirella Pirritano5, Michele Gallamini7, and Fabrizio Eusebi8

1 Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia, Universita, La Sapienza, Roma
2 Istituto di Medicina e Scienza dello Sport , CONI Servizi, Via dei Campi Sportivi 46, Roma
3 Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia, Universita La Sapienza, Roma
4 Istituto di Medicina e Scienza dello Sport CONI Servizi, Via dei Campi Sportivi 46, Roma
5 Istituto di Medicina e Scienza dello Sport CONI Servizi, Via dei Campi Sportivi 46, Roma
6 Federazione Italiana Golf, FIG, Roma
7 RGM, Genova, Italy
8 Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia, Universita La Sapienza, Roma

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: claudio.delpercio{at}uniroma1.it.

It is not known whether frontal cerebral rhythms of the two hemispheres are implicated in fine motor control and balance. To address this issue, electroencephalographic (EEG) and stabilometric recordings were simultaneously performed in 12 right-handed expert golfers. The subjects were asked to stand upright on a stabilometric force platform placed at a golf green simulator while playing about 100 golf putts. Balance during the putts was indexed by body sway area. Cortical activity was indexed by the power reduction in spatially-enhanced alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) rhythms during movement, referred to a pre-movement period. It was found that the body sway area displayed similar values in the successful and unsuccessful putts. In contrast, the high-frequency alpha power (about 10-12 Hz) was smaller in amplitude in the successful than in the unsuccessful putts over the frontal midline and the arm and hand region of the right primary sensorimotor area; the stronger the reduction of the alpha power, the smaller the error of the unsuccessful putts (i.e. distance from the hole). These results indicate that high-frequency alpha rhythms over associative, premotor and non-dominant primary sensorimotor areas subserve motor control and are predictive of the golfer’s performance.


Key words: Electroencephalogram (EEG) • alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) • golfers







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