THE PEOPLE, IDEAS, AND THINGS JOURNAL ABOUT PIT

CONFERENCE
CATEGORIES SUBMIT JOIN LOGIN

HUMANITIES

SOCIAL
SCIENCE

SCIENCE

INTERDISCIPLINARY
STUDIES

HEALTH-
HUMANITIES

EDUCATION

BUSINESS

CYCLES

SPECIAL
ISSUE:
PANDEMICS
Mind Games: Exploring and
& POLITICS,
2020
Analyzing the Mind of an
SPECIAL
ISSUE:
SOCIAL
JUSTICE,
Athlete
2021
Willa Ma
SPECIAL ISSUE:
ER
Abstract:
OBSERVATIONS, As sports fans, we marvel at elite athletes and the way they play their sport.
2019
The physical prowess is clearly seen, but the little-researched yet powerful
CYCLE 9, brain behind the body is also a key factor in the success of these exceptional
2018
athletes. Athletic performance does not only benefit from a thinking mind, as
CYCLE 8, the mind also benefits from sports. Mental toughness, focus, and anticipation
2017
are just a few mental strategies that the mind develops when playing sports.
CYCLE 7,
2016 In addition, sports also enhance specific regions of the brain and cause
structural changes. Athletes have sharpened their minds to pay attention to
CYCLE 6,
2015 the little details to better their game, but this skill does not just stay on the
court. The skills learned through sports benefit athletes throughout life and in
CYCLE 5,
2014 the workforce.

CYCLE 4,
2013 Article:
En garde, and the fencing match begins. A father, age 69, and his 20-year-old
CYCLE 3,
2012 son face off in what seems to be an easy win for the latter. But it turns into a
close battle. Despite the age difference, both competitors are able to attack
CYCLE 2,
2011 with precision, even though many would expect the older individual to be far
weaker than the younger, more agile one. According to a study done at the
CYCLE 1,
2010 University of Rome, sports that involve quick decision-making, like fencing, are
associated with improving cognitive functions like processing and attention and
help hinder mental declines that come with aging, which explains why the older
POPULAR TAGS individual is able to compete neck-in-neck with the younger one (Mullin, 2015).
politics health In a similar study, athletes and non-athletes were given a cognitive test that
mimicked the cognitive functions used in sports, and athletes were measured
philosophy
to be more accurate with better reaction times than non-athletes. Clearly, the
mind of an athlete is powerful. Since many scholars typically focus on the
negative aspects of sports on the brain, the approach that athletics benefit the
brain is often overlooked. Recently, cases have arisen involving the “hidden
injury” known as concussions, shining an unpleasant light on sports, especially
high contact sports like football. My research, however, demonstrates the
benefits sports have on the brain. Through the use of scholarly research with
scholarship in neuroscience, my research analyzes how the brain works when
playing sports and how athletics benefit the mind by improving cognition,
supporting brain plasticity, and strengthening the mind on and off the field.

The mind is more than just the interactions and connections of neurons.
According to yogic science, the brain is a physical manifestation of the mind
(Sarich, 2012), and the mind is made up of the abstract thoughts that go
beyond the concrete brain functions (Greenfield, 2002). It encapsulates what
we perceive and the experiences we have and communicates “in the language
of feeling” (Sarich, 2016). The primary difference between brain and mind is
that the brain is the physical organ of the human body that controls bodily
functions and sensations, but the mind is the interpretation of what the brain
connects. For example, in the brain, the amygdala may be stimulated when we
are faced with a strong emotion like anger, but our mind sees the anger and
frustration that came from missing the last shot in a basketball game. Clearly,
the brain contrasts with the mind, for the mind is what compiles everything we
experience and makes sense of what our brain perceives.

Cognitive performance improves when the brain and the body work together.
Studies show that people who exercise regularly on a stationary bike for at
least 20 minutes perform better on cognitive executive functioning tasks,
proving the benefit of exercise to the brain (Schraefel, 2015). The US
Department of Health defines physical activity as bodily activity that leads to
expended energy above resting levels (Thomas, Dennis, et al, 2012). Studies
have been done on rodents to show the changes that happen in brains while
exercising. After 30 days of regularly running through an acrobatic maze, the
rodents had an increased number of synapses per purkinje cell in the
cerebellum, which are cells that regulate motor movements. In addition, wheel
running significantly increased numbers of new neurons in the hippocampus of
rodents, which suggests a stronger memory and better regulation of stress.
Sports take physical activity to the next level by further engaging and
strengthening the brain. The key difference between physical activity and sports
is that sports are driven by a goal: winning a game or finishing a race
(Schraefel, 2015). Winning requires both physical and cognitive skills for
strategy and tactics. For example, sports enhance an athlete’s perceptual
cognition or vision by requiring the brain to rapidly process information while
being in a dynamic state. When you play soccer, you aren’t just running up
and down the field—you are also reading the field, utilizing a strategy to score,
and locating your teammates and opponents while playing. While sports have
clear advantages over physical activity, not all sports are the same; sports can
be split into two types: open skill and closed skill sports (Mullin, 2015). Open
skill sports are unpredictable and include volleyball, fencing, and basketball. In
contrast, closed skill sports are stable, predictable, non-contact and self-paced,
like swimming, gymnastics, and golf. Taiwanese researchers conducted a study
to determine the difference between the two types of sports on the brain and
the mind. Participants were broken into two groups of those who practiced
open-skill sports and those who practiced closed-skill sports. The Erikson-
flanker test, which involves quick response to a target on a computer screen,
was used to test reaction time. While both groups had similar response
speeds, open skill athletes demonstrated greater neural efficiency compared to
the other group. Neural efficiency is the ability to use fewer neurons and
exhibit lower activation of the brain when working on a cognitive task. Playing
a sport engages more interactions in the brain than just physical exercise
alone, and these skills lead to success in sports and strengthen one’s mind by
promoting creativity and innovation in areas outside of sports (Reynolds, 2011).
Moreover, elite athletes are able to respond faster to tasks outside the realm of
their sports, according to research done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. In another study done at the same campus, researchers
discovered in a virtual road crossing that athletes were able to complete
significantly more successful road crossings than non-athletes, not because
they were able to move faster, but because they glanced along the street more
times than non-athletes, allowing them to gather more data into their brains.
Cognition is improved by those who regularly exercise, but even more so by
those who play sports that engage the brain as well as the body.

With the lack of attention toward the benefits sports have on the mind, the
“dumb jock” stereotype continues to persist in today’s culture despite evidence
fighting against it. The stereotype dates back to 500 BC when Greek athletes
were believed to have abandoned intellectual development to spend time
preparing for sport and competition and were “characterized by some
philosophers of the period as useless and ignorant citizens with dull minds”
(Sailes, 1993). More recently, college athletes, especially those playing sports
like basketball and football, have been criticized and tainted by the media
because of reports that say recruits do not meet academic standards of the
NCAA and have low college graduation rates. The prevalence of this stereotype
is shown through a study that surveyed 869 undergraduate and graduate
students finding that “45% of subjects felt that college student-athletes were
not as smart as the average college student, almost 44% felt student-athletes
took easy courses to stay academically eligible, and 37% felt student-athletes
were not as academically competitive as the typical college student” (Sailes,
1993). However, while the dumb jock stereotype persists, there is no scientific
basis to it, and there is actually more evidence proving the stereotype wrong.
From youth, sports prove to be advantageous to participants in the classroom.
With a focus on childhood development, researcher Linda Pagani from the
Université de Montréal found evidence that organized extracurricular sports
develop and improve cognitive skills, and that in the classroom, athletics
increase concentration capacity (2015). Looking at the impact of team sports,
Pagani discovered that by the fourth grade, kids who played structured sports
were better at following instructions and staying focused. She found that in the
sporting world the sense of belonging on a team allows kids to better
understand and respect rules and responsibilities. Moreover, Division I student
athletes in college actually graduate at higher rates than the general student
body (Hosick, 2014). In 2008, the annual graduation success rate of all
Division I student-athletes was 77 percent, and this percentage has steadily
increased. By 2014, the rate was 86 percent. In addition to higher graduation
rates, athletes tend to succeed at higher rates when they leave their college
campus, such as obtaining higher salaries. A recent study done at Cornell
University showed that participation in competitive sports in youth correlates
with better jobs in the future. To prove this positive correlation, 66 adults over
the age of 25 participated in the study by answering questions about their
athletic history as well as leadership, time management, self-respect, and
volunteerism (Kniffin, Wansink, Shimizu, 2015). Postdoctoral research associate
Kevin Kniffin discovered that competitive sports develop skills like leadership,
self-confidence and self-respect, which are advantageous traits for those
looking for good jobs. Compared to people who were part of other
extracurricular activities, athletes were able to demonstrate these beneficial
qualities throughout their lives, earn higher-paying jobs, and possess greater
prosocial behavior in ages over 70, suggesting the benefits of sports
throughout an athlete’s entire life.

“Practice makes perfect,” coaches always say; it’s one of the most cliché
quotes in sports, but in these three simple words lies a very concrete truth. To
the brain, practice really does yield better results. Vince Lombardi, a famous
football coach, was known for running the same play repeatedly in practice just
so it could be executed perfectly in competition. In a study done at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher Scott Grafton studied the
importance of repetition and practice when it comes to sports (Sukel, 2012). He
found that the action-observation network of the brain, which includes the
temporal cortex, frontoparietal cortex and the motor cortex, helps break down
movements into smaller components at first, which facilitates learning. After
long periods of practice, the basal ganglia then combines the movements
together into larger chunks. This network allows athletes to rehearse
movements mentally and learn from observation. Practice tricks the brain into
not overthinking. From the standpoint of a gymnast, practicing a routine many
times allows for the body to go into autopilot during an actual competition,
where overthinking may interfere with performance. To the brain, the repetition
in practice allows the body to perform almost without thinking. As stated by
Grafton, overthinking is very common because the brain’s motor systems
process information much faster than the brain’s verbal systems. For example,
imagine how fast things are going when trying to shoot a basketball. Taking the
time to think in a situation like that is difficult to do if you don’t want to
interfere with your motor processes or your bodily function, so as soon as
athletes begin to overthink or make adjustments to how they are shooting, their
performance will definitely deteriorate. Moreover, the American Psychological
Association reported a study conducted in Germany that tested athletic skill
and choking under pressure (2012). These researchers found that athletes
perform better when relying on their bodies to perform the movements for their
sport, rather than overthinking their actions.

When elite athletes compete, one of their key skills is the ability to anticipate
events before they actually happen, and this skill is developed in the brain
through repetitive practice that leads to a sense of automaticity for athletes.
Athletes have sharpened their minds to pay attention to the little details to
better their game (Voss, 2010). This selective attention is associated to a state
of athletic automaticity known as “flow,” which is a state of mind where athletes
perform with ease or almost involuntarily (Sukel, 2012). The activation of “flow”
results in the deactivation of the prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in
planning complex behavior and decision making, and an increased activation in
the sensorimotor cortex, which is a region that deals with the control of
voluntary movements. In other words, the brain hinders some of its self-
monitoring in order to reduce the effects of overthinking. “Flow” is a state that
maximizes attention on the right things in regard to the sport being played, and
allows an athlete’s attention to anticipate the opponent’s movements or know
what is coming next. Furthermore, this skill of anticipation doesn’t just remain
on the court. Michael Posner, a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon,
discovered that athletes’ attention prepares them for the next event as soon as
they respond to the previous event and keeps them alert, while non-athletes
wait after responding to the first event and are more relaxed. This alertness
athletes possess translates to off-the-court situations where making quick and
smart decisions benefits them outside of sports.

While for athletes it is important to practice regularly and be in a state of “flow”

during competition, according to coaches and the Mental Toughness Scale
(MTS), mental toughness, the determination to overcome adversity when
playing a sport, is arguably the most important mental skills an athlete can
develop. A year after Michael Phelps’ record-breaking performance at the 2008
Olympics, he returned to the water to compete in his best event in the 2009
world championships (Shipley, 2012). However, this time, he was older and
much less prepared physically for the elite swimming that he had been
accustomed to for the years leading up to the prior Olympics. Despite being
older, slower, and “out-of-shape” for an Olympian, Phelps was still able to
clinch the title in the 100m butterfly and claim another world record. His coach
said that he owed all of this to mental toughness. US Olympic Committee sport
psychologist Sean McCann believes that mental strength is an attribute that
can be naturally possessed by some athletes, and Michael Phelps is one of
them. In the words of sports psychologist Graham Jones, mental toughness is
defined as “the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to
generally cope better than your opponents with the many demands that sport
places on a performer” (2002). McCann breaks mental strength into two
components: a desire for superiority and a resilience to overcome unforeseen
circumstances (Shipley, 2012). Within those components, the main attributes of
mental toughness include controlling pressure, staying focused, and remaining
confident, motivated, and determined, which is what the MTS developed by
Leilani Madrigal, Sharon Hamill and Diane L. Gill (2013) is based on. The MTS
is a 54-question assessment on attitude, training, competition, and post-
competition, and in their research, they studied the results of college athletes
and non-college athletes. Their results reinforced that training is extremely
important to mental toughness. Most athletes spend more time training than
competing in their sports. The results of the MTS correlated with the ranking
coaches gave to their players; those who were ranked high by their coaches
also scored high on the MTS. Mental toughness is a key to success in sports,
and sports help athletes acquire this skill that non-athletes cannot obtain.

The motivation of athletes like Michael Phelps is what keeps them engaged in
sports, and this dedication to their sport builds a sense of motivation that can
be used outside the sports world. In the 1996 Olympics, the youngest member
of the US Gymnastics team was 14 years old (Sukel, 2012). Her name was
Dominique Moceanu. The first time she heard herself referred to as an
“Olympic hopeful” was when she was nine. That was all it took to motivate her
to give up a normal teenage life and pursue the Olympics. Abigail Baird, a
neuroscientist at Vassar College, studies the teenage brain. She learned that
mental focus and motivation is particularly well-fostered in teenagers because
for teens, anticipating a reward or the glory of winning is much more gratifying
than actually receiving the reward. The nucleus accumbens, whose operation is
based on dopamine, a neurotransmitter that promotes desire, is reactive to the
anticipation of a reward, and is easily stimulated by athletes who are strongly
motivated to succeed in sports. Phelps is one of many elite athletes who
exemplify the strong motivation of teenagers. At 15 years old, he attended his
first Olympic Games in 2000, and at the 2004 Games in Athens when he was
19 years old, he won six gold medals and two bronze (Shipley, 2012).
Motivation is clearly promoted in athletes at a young age, and this drive
benefits these athletes in areas outside of sports, motivating them to succeed
in other areas of life.

Visualization is a beneficial technique used amongst many athletes to better

their game; it is mentally seeing yourself performing a skill or doing well in
your sport. Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney said, “I lie in bed the
night before the game and visualize myself scoring goals or doing well. You’re
trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself” (Bailey,
2014). Rooney is an example of an elite athlete who uses the technique of
visualization. A research study done by Guang Yue, an exercise psychologist
from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation compared regular athletes who went to
the gym and those who just “carried out virtual workouts in their heads”
(LeVan, 2009). He found a 30% increase in muscle for those who went to the
gym and a 13.5% increase in muscle for those who did virtual workouts.
Moreover, when studying the brain patterns of weightlifters, similar patterns
were found when lifting weights and simply imagined lifting. Though physical
training is still important for elite athletes, studies show that visualizing and
mental practice can boost an athlete’s performance and can be an effective
addition to physical training. Sports psychologist Richard Suinn found that
visualization triggers neural firings in muscles and builds a blueprint that
facilitates performance in the future (Bailey, 2014). With the use of
electromyographic equipment, Suinn studied the brains of skiers and found that
skiers who visualized skiing fired electrical impulses and produced muscle
patterns nearly identical to the patterns found in those who were actually
skiing. Though visualization does not replace or equate to years of actively
practicing a sport, mental rehearsal does help athletes’ neural connections to
better their performance. Using imagery, athletes further train their mind to
perform the right technique and better execute their physical body during
competition.

Participation in sports can also affect athletes by causing other structural

changes in specific regions of the brain. According to research conducted at
the Korea University College of Medicine, short-track speed skaters have larger
right hemispheres of the cerebellum, the center of the brain in balance control,
than non-skaters (Springer Science+Business Media, 2012). Researcher Im Joo
Rhyu analyzed MRI scans of the brains of 16 male professional short-track
speed skaters and 18 non-skaters. Results that depicted the professional
skaters to have noticeably larger right hemispheres suggest that the right
hemisphere of the cerebellum is very flexible. Gliding on ice requires a
specialized skill set involving balance and coordination, and speed skaters only
turn left while maintaining balance on their right foot, so the right lobes of the
cerebellum are larger because of this increased need for balance on the right
foot, which activates the right hemisphere. Moreover, visually guided tasks are
typically associated with the right hemisphere which further explains why the
right lobe of the cerebellum has a larger volume compared to the left. Another
study researching the neuroplasticity of the brains of athletes was conducted in
China on a group of professional divers and a group of non-divers (Wei,
Zhang, et al, 2011). These Chinese researchers were specifically looking at
cortical thickness, which is the thickness of the layers of the cerebral cortex in
mammals and is often related to a person’s cognitive ability. In the comparison
between the two groups tested, the athlete group revealed increased cortical
thickness in three regions of the brain: the left superior temporal sulcus, the
right orbitofrontal cortex, and the right parahippocampal gyrus. In addition, the
amount of training experience correlated significantly with cortical thickness
specifically in the right parahippocampal gyrus, which is closely associated with
acquiring skills during diving. The parahippocampal gyrus is known to have a
function in memory encoding and retrieval, and the researchers in this study
concluded that changes in this region of the brain are strongly associated with
increased expertise and spatial information processing in diving. The increased
thickness of the left superior temporal sulcus, typically known to play a role in
perceiving motions of the body, indicates that athletes are better at perceiving
movements of others despite the amount of information provided and have a
better understanding of the relationship of the observed motion and the
environment. The orbitofrontal cortex regulates decision making and is
associated with reward and punishment, which suggests that athletes have a
good understanding of reward like a medal and punishment like failure in a
competition. Evidence from many studies show how flexible our brains can be
because of engagement in sports.

Neuroplasticity has long been thought to be the flexibility of the brain mostly in
youths, but studies show that physical activity and sports allow the brain to
continue to develop and change at all ages. Though aging is typically
associated with a decrease in cardiovascular health, studies show that
engaging in regular aerobic exercise enhances the central nervous system and
improves cognitive function in adults (Colombe, Erickson, et al, 2006). Fifty-
nine healthy individuals, aged 60-79 years old, participated in a clinical trial;
half participated in aerobic activity and the other half simply did stretching and
toning exercises. After six months, researchers found a significant increase in
brain volume for those who participated in aerobic exercise. These researchers
from the University of Illinois highlighted the changing brain at even during old
age, proving the benefit of physical activity to the mind. When the brain starts
to deteriorate with age, a wide range of cognitive processes also declines, but
those who performed aerobic exercise showed improved cognitive functioning,
especially “in higher order processes, such as working memory, ability to switch
between tasks, and inhibiting irrelevant information” (Colombe, Erickson, et al,
2006). Previous research with non-humans provides further evidence for their
findings, like aerobic exercise leading to a growth of new capillaries in the
brain, increased production of cells in the hippocampus, and increased number
of connections between neurons. Their research suggests that the human brain
is flexible and can change at any age. Discoveries have also been reported
showing the positive correlation between sports and brain plasticity (Chang,
Tsai, et al, 2015). In a study comparing the basal ganglia, which is involved in
coordination of movement, of runners and martial artists, researchers noticed
that athletic experience influenced the basal ganglia, and the specific sport
does not matter. In addition, athletes (runners and martial artists) and non-
athletes were examined through physical fitness assessments. The athlete
group showed lower fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity that measure
connectivity and directionality in the brain. This conclusion indicates elite
training changes white matter in the brain, which is made of axons in the
central nervous system, by accelerating nerve signals.

While sports do cause physical structural changes to the brain, athletics,

whether playing or watching them, also engage the brain by strengthening the
brain, but not causing structural changes. A team of researchers led by
Kathleen Cullen at McGill University (2015) discovered the role of the
cerebellum in learning new motor skills. They uncovered that like mathematical
models, the brains of athletes are constantly engaging in computations to
speedily compare anticipated feedback and actual feedback and then readjust
to strengthen connections between neurons to form new patterns within the
brain. The brain estimates the sensory inflow that it should receive when
learning a new motor skill, and the cerebellum differentiates between what
actually happened and what was intended. For elite athletes, their brains are
much more responsive to making predictions and readjustments when learning
new skills. Moreover, sports are not only advantageous for those who play, but
a study in 2008 by researchers at the University of Chicago (2008) discovered
that just watching sports is beneficial to the brain. Their study showed watching
sports enriches a person’s ability to understand language regarding that sport
more precisely because areas in the brain normally used for actions become
involved in understanding language. The brain does this by altering the neural
networks that deal with language comprehension to include areas in the brain
active in performing in sports. The study was focused on the game of hockey.
Twelve hockey players, eight fans and nine individuals who never watched
hockey before, were tested by scanning their brains with an MRI while they
listened to sentences about hockey and sentences that were about everyday
activities. After listening to the sentences, the subjects were tested based on
comprehension of the sentences. It was revealed through brain imaging that
hockey players and fans showed activity in brain regions that plan physical
actions, suggesting that increased activity in these motor areas help them
understand hockey and the language associated with it. Overall, the discovery
was that those who played and watched sports developed a stronger
understanding of language as opposed to those who do not regularly
participate in these activities.

Athletics are a huge part of today’s culture. We often look up to the great
athletes and are captivated by memorable performances like Michael Jordan’s
game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA National Championship or Carli Lloyd’s
hat trick within the first 16 minutes of the 2015 World Cup final. We wonder
how they became so great and what makes them great. While the training of
the body leads these elite athletes to this caliber of play, the strength of the
mind is also an important factor in competitive sports. We see the physical
aspects of how they play, and it is evident how playing a sport benefits the
body, but in sports, the brain is also at work, and clear advantages are seen in
the minds of athletes.
References

American Psychological Association (APA). (2012, September 19). "Clenching

left hand could help athletes avoid choking under pressure." ScienceDaily.
Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120919124900.htm
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120919124900.htm)

Bailey, M. (2014, January 22). "Sports visualisation: how to imagine your way
to success." The Telegraph. Retrieved from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/10568898/Sports-visualisation-how-...
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/10568898/Sports-visualisation-
how-to-imagine-your-way-to-success.html)

Chang, Y.-K., Tsai, J. H.-C., Wang, C.-C., & Chang, E. C. (2015). "Structural
differences in basal ganglia of elite running versus martial arts athletes: a
diffusion tensor imaging study." Experimental Brain Research233(7), 2239–
2248. doi: 10.1007/s00221-015-4293-x

Colcombe, S. J., Erickson, K. I., Scalf, P. E., Kim, J. S., & Prakash, R. (2006).
"Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans." The
Journals of Gerontology, 61A(11), 1166–1170. Retrieved from
http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/1166.long
(http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/1166.long)

Greenfield, S. (2002). "Mind, brain, consciousness." The British Journal of

Psychiatry, 181(2), 91–93. doi:10.1192/bjp.181.2.91

Hosick, M. B. (2014, October 28). "Student-athletes earn diplomas at record

rate." NCAA. Retrieved from http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-
center/news/student-athletes-
(http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/student-
athletes-) earn-diplomas-record-rate

Jones, G. (2002). "What is this thing called mental toughness? An investigation

of elite sport performers." Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14, 205–218.
doi:10.1080/10413200290103509

Kniffin, K. M., Wansink, B., & Shimizu, M. (2015). "Sports at work: Anticipated
and persistent correlates of participation in high school athletics." Journal of
Leadership & Organizational Studies, 22(2), 217–230.
doi:10.1177/1548051814538099

LeVan, A. (2009, March 12). "Seeing is believing: The power of

visualization." Psychology Today. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/flourish/200912/seeing- is-believing-
the-power-visualization

Madrigal, L., Hamill, S., & Gill, D. L. (2013). "Mind over matter: The
development of the mental toughness scale (MTS)." The Sports Psychologist,
27(1), 62–77. Retrieved from
http://journals.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/Docum
entI...
(http://journals.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/D
ocumentItem/06-) TSP-Madrigal-62-77-ej.pdf
McGill University. (2015, August 3). "Our elegant brain: Motor learning in the
fast lane." ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 18, 2016 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150803155558.htm
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150803155558.htm)

Mullin, E. (2015, June 4). "This is your brain on fencing: How certain sports
may aid the aging brain." Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/this-is-your- brain-
on-fencing- how-certain-sports-may-aid-the-aging-brain/2015/04/06/92b70970-
c98c-11e4-b2a1- bed1aaea2816_story.html

Piche, G., Fitzpatrick, C., & Pagani, L. S. (2015). "Associations between

extracurricular activity and self-regulation: A longitudinal study from 5 to 10
years of age." American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(1).
doi:10.4278/ajhp.131021-QUAN-537

Reynolds, G. (2011, March 23). "How sports may focus the brain." New York
Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/how-sports-
may-focus-the-brain/... (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/how-
sports-may-focus-the-brain/?_r=0)

Sailes, G. A. (1993). "An investigation of campus stereotypes: the myth of

Black athletic superiority and the dumb jock stereotype." Sociology of Sport
Journal, 10, 88-97.

Sarich, C. (2016). "The mind vs. brain debate (What is consciousness?)."

Retrieved from http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com/articles-and-news/the-
mind-vs-brain-d... (http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com/articles-and-
news/the-mind-vs-brain-debate-what-) is-consciousness/

Schraefel, M. C. (2015). "From field to office: Translating brain-body benefits

from sport to knowledge work." Interactions, 33–35. Retrieved from
http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/march-april-2015/from-field-to-...
(http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/march-april-2015/from-field-
to-office)

Shipley, A. (2012, December 6). "Michael Phelps has mastered the psychology
of speed." Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/michael-phelps-has-
master... psychology-of-speed/2012/06/13/gJQAHiQuZV_story.html

Springer Science+Business Media. (2012). "Skaters' brains: Specialized training

of complex motor skills may induce sports-specific structural changes in
cerebellum." ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 18, 2016 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326112918.htm
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326112918.htm)

Sukel, K. (2012). "Mental preparation of high-level athetes." Retrieved from

http://www.dana.org/News/Details.aspx?id=43530#_edn7
(http://www.dana.org/News/Details.aspx?id=43530#_edn7)

Thomas, A. G., Dennis, A., Bandettini, P. A., & Johansen-Berg, H. (2012). "The
effects of aerobic activity on brain structure." Frontiers in Psychology, 3(86).
doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00086

University of Chicago. (2008). "Playing, and even watching, sports improves

brain function." ScienceDaily. Retrieved from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080901205631.htm
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080901205631.htm)

Voss, M. (2010, January 6). "Understanding the mind of the elite

athlete." Scientific American. Retrieved from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/understanding-elite-athlete/
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/understanding-elite-athlete/)

Wei, G., Zhang, Y., Jiang, T., & Luo, J. (2011). "Increased cortical thickness in
sports experts: A comparison of diving players with the controls." (A. Sirigu,
Ed.) PLoS One. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017112

About the Author(s)

Willa
Ma

Log in to post comments