“Autonomic Nervous System Activity during Actual and Mentally Simulated Preparation for Movement”-Formal Review #1
Right before I attempt a big lift, I have to rehearse this movement in my mind and always say “I have this, its easy”. If I can anticipate being successful with the lift, then it’ll feel much better than blindly going into an attempt with no anticipation or expectation for myself. Lifting goes beyond adding 45lbs plates and trying to ingest big ass doses of preworkout playboy.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is accountable for different types of responses for the human body. The ANS can affect different factors such as heart rate, digestion, respiration rate and many more. Bolliet, Collet, and Dittmar begin by discussing how variables from the peripheral ANS are thought to reflect two different types of preparation: energetic and directional. Energetic preparation pertains to the level of physiological activation, while directional preparation relates to information processing. These expressions of literature lead these authors to discuss previous research regarding the ANS response between actual and mental preparation for movement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare ANS activity during the preparation period for a complex motor skill (weightlifting) in both real and imagined attempts.
This study recruited the expertise of twelve top-level male weightlifters between the ages of 17 to 25. To understand the effects of actual and mentally simulated movement on the ANS, these participants performed the “snatch” as their strength complex motor skill. Measurements were taken during the preparation phase, as well as during their performance. Instrumentation for this study included electrodes, micro sensors, and a “low-inertia” thermistor. Measurements of the ANS included six variables: skin resistance, skin potential, superficial skin blood flow, superficial skin temperature, instantaneous heart rate, and instantaneous respiratory frequency.
Many studies aspire to find a “significant difference” to discover what type of relationship exists within their research topic. For this study, though, researchers wanted to find no significant difference to compare the ANS values between actual and mentally simulated movements. The two types of values compared were tonic and phasic values. Tonic values pertain to when the lifter has their hands on the bar leading to execution of the movement. Phasic values relate to the response of being “called out” to hands-to-bar-contact. Of all these values, the only significance found (during the phasic response) was between skin resistance and heart rate. Before an attempt, it is said that an elite lifter would decrease their heart rate to improve their concentration towards an attempt. During an actual movement, the ANS response shows that these elite lifters decreased their heart rate during the phasic response, and in return had an effect on skin resistance (higher OPD value). As the article indicates, “this ohmic perturbation duration (OPD) was correlated with the stimulation load; the greater the stimulation, the longer the OPD”. In contrast, a mentally simulated movement did not require lifters to have such a dramatic decrease in heart rate since there was no intention of an actual movement afterwards.
This study found that ANS values between mental and actual movements were very similar. Towards the end of this article, there was no conclusion made, meaning the limitation to this study was the misuse of biofeedback information from the autonomic response. These authors understood that this was their main limitation, acknowledging that future research may investigate the role of biofeedback in controlling factors such as “activation level”.
Based on previous research, this study helps to reinforce an ongoing notion about the benefits to mental rehearsal on actual movement. Between tonic and phasic values, these six measurements of the ANS are very similar, assumed by the majority of “no significance”. This information implies that active participation in mentally simulated movements are comparable to actual movements, which can be beneficial for those interested in learning a new task, rehabilitation from an injury, or adding modifications to a previously learned skill. Although it does not directly affect performance of movements, it can help replicate the autonomic response for possible benefits to future performance.
If conducting future research in this area, it would be interesting to see the ANS response during actual and mentally simulated movements pertaining to different loads of weight in a complex movement skill. For instances, there could be an analysis of the response between actual and mentally simulated movements between different percentages of a one rep max. This type of information could be helpful for those who are lifting weights for enhancement of performance in a sport. Knowing how the ANS will respond between these two types of movements could help bridge the gap for those who might hit a plateau physically or in mental preparation for a movement.