Testing a neuroassessment task for spatial attention skills in combat sports

Background: Performance data can serve as a valuable tool for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of athletes, evaluating their developmental progress, customizing training methods to individual needs, and estimating their overall potential. However, challenges arise in the practical application of skills evaluation due to outdated methodologies and imprecise metrics for measuring performance and skills. Aims: The aim of this study was to test a task tapping on spatial attention abilities in combat sports athletes using an ecological neuroassessment methodology. Methods: We compared athletes engaged in combat sports (CS) vs. other sports (OS; e.g, tennis, basketball) through a neuroassessment protocol focused on attention skills. Computerized tasks were complemented with electrophysiological recordings, specifically electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs). This study focuses on spatial attention by employing an ecological digitalized cueing task where participants were required to block hand and foot strokes originating from various locations, preceded by either valid or invalid cues. Results: Data analysis revealed reduced response times coupled with a decrease in the amplitude of the parietal P3 ERPs component for valid trials compared to invalid trials in combat sports. Furthermore, an increased peak-to-peak latency for the central P3 component was observed in combat sports compared to other sports for invalid trials. Conclusion: Consistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis, the findings suggest internally coherent profiles across various dimensions of attention regulation performance, emphasizing the potential of the proposed neuroassessment methodology in elucidating cognitive aspects of athletic performance in combat sports.