COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Grab the ball, begin, shoot.
Kiersten Janjigian, Certified mental performance consultant and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, studied the relationship between brain waves and basketball.
"Ok, we know that physical practice creates neural efficiency and enhanced performance, so does mental practice enhance neural efficiency and refine the brain in the same way and therefore enhance performance?" Janjigian said.
VIDEO: Researcher studying the science behind the perfect shot
That's the question that took her on a 2-year research journey.
The process of answering that question starts with putting an EEG cap on a test subject to measure their brain waves.
Then, they had to take a few test shots all while collecting data.
"The leg is very sensitive to movement, which is one of the limitations, but at the same time we're getting temporal specific—it is coming in exactly on time as it is happening in your brain, which is really cool," she explained.
Then came the imagery part where test subjects listened to an audio meant to put them in the zone with phrases like, "I set my feet. I feel centered and balanced. And I know I am lined up exactly where I need to be to make this shot."
That was followed by another round of shots, these ones the center of the study.
Kiersten repeated the process with 26 participants.
She shared her findings.
"Wasn't a significant difference between performance between imagery and control, nor neural efficiency showed any sort of significant difference."
But a deeper analysis showed that confidence had a hand in the results.
"Participants who had higher levels of confidence seemed to show some greater effect of imagery on performance than those with moderate or lower levels of confidence."
In real life, that may mean an athlete who already thinks highly of their skills might benefit more from mental imagery.
Kiersten said if mental imagery is partnered with confidence-building strategies like positive self-talk, people could experience peak performance under pressure.
And that doesn't just apply to athletes.
This can translate to many other professions, like surgeons, reporters, lawyers, and more.
But she said ideally future research would incorporate longer imagery sessions.
