BASEBALL SPOTLIGHT: A BATTER'S BRAIN!
When a baseball is flying towards you at about 85 to 95 mph, you perceive to hit but what goes through your head? Several talented players do not make it to the big leagues as a result of not being able to hit well enough because it is more than just a reflex. So, what is happening in the brain that makes hitters somehow hit a ball given its speed and trajectory?
A study about how activation of the brain changes with the increasing available number of alternatives (NA) was conducted with this question in mind. It involved 15 college baseball players and sort of a simulation to determine the response time of hitters.
This study concluded that the brain relies heavily on the supplementary motor area (SMA) while minimizing the use of the frontal cortex for deliberating decision-making (Sherwin et. al., 2015). The frontal cortex processes data and makes decisions meticulously and slowly which is why the researchers ruled that part of the brain out because it is not adept with split-second decision making. However, they believed that the SMA was responsible for the coordination of sequencing a preplanned movement. When an MRI was performed on participants (expert hitters), they found that the SMA such as the frontal gyrus and fusiform gyrus was most active as the ball approached the plate (Sherwin et. al., 2015). With the supplementary motor area, a batter is likely to inhibit their swing while waiting for the right pitch. For performance in a time-pressured task such as batting in baseball, it is said that Perception-action coupling is critical for batters to perceive information about their environment and use that information to guide their actions. Batters use visual cues to anticipate the pitch and choose the appropriate swing. Studies have shown that perception-action coupling is a key factor in successful batting performance (Muraskin et. al., 2017).
The brain uses motor areas (SMA) and premotor areas for planning and executing movements. Planning of a movement includes mapping of the anticipated movements including gaze, head, and gaze direction, as well as predicting obstacles and sudden movements. The supplementary motor area (SMA) resolves conflicts in movement planning which helps to integrate feedback. The premotor area constitutes the executive system for cognitive functioning which helps to integrate sensory input, plan movements, and generate motor commands. The prefrontal cortex processes incoming information from the sensory systems, like vision, audition, and touch, and integrates them to generate appropriate motor commands. The basal ganglia receive information from other parts of the brain and process it to generate appropriate control signals. Its association with the dopamine system allows it to be actively involved in perceptual decision-making. In this case, high dopamine levels might result either in confusion or the detection of a pitch pattern.
With the use of fMRI, the researchers concluded that it always came down to a Go/No-Go task when under severe pressure because the brain functions differently when it is making a decision about whether or not to hit or pass on a pitch.
REFERENCES:
Kohn, D. (2016, August 29). Scientists examine what happens in the brain when a bat tries to meet a ball. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-examine-what-happens-in-the-brain-when-bat-tries-to-meet-ball/2016/08/29/d32e9d4e-4d14-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html
J. Muraskin et al., "Fusing Multiple Neuroimaging Modalities to Assess Group Differences in Perception–Action Coupling," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 83-100, Jan. 2017, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2016.2574702.
Sherwin, J. S., Muraskin, J., & Sajda, P. (2015). Pre-stimulus functional networks modulate task performance in time-pressured evidence gathering and decision-making. NeuroImage, 111, 513–525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.01.023
Reports Outline Integrative Neuroscience Findings from Kyungpook National University (Changes in baseball batters' brain activity with increased pitch choice). (2016, March 7). Pain & Central Nervous System Week, 517. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A445283417/AONE?u=regis&sid=ebsco&xid=fd5270e9
In relation to your ending statement about the brain functioning differently under pressure, I was reminded of a study regarding the perceived slow down of time in high stress moments like a car crash. To test if this was actually occurring, researchers dropped participants off of a tall structure with a controlled descent while the participant watched a screen that was switching through numbers at a rate slightly faster than can be perceived (Eagleman et al., 2008). If adrenaline was causing the brain speed up, the idea was that the participants would be better able to track the numbers on the screen. I believe that they found there was no speed up of the brain and that it was an illusion that mind fabricates to help people react in those high stress moments. Think subsequent studies also used fMRI to study the phenomenon further similar to your article. It would be interesting to see if there are similar effects in the brain and how it would alter batting.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Eagleman DM. Human time perception and its illusions. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2008 Apr;18(2):131-6. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2008.06.002. Epub 2008 Aug 8. PMID: 18639634; PMCID: PMC2866156.