Characteristics of athletes’ mind wandering during sustained attention to response tasks under competitive pressure: Evidence from behavior and fNIRS
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-025-08677-z
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Summary
This study investigates the behavioral and neural characteristics of mind wandering (MW) in athletes during sustained attention tasks under competitive pressure. While MW is known to impair performance in high-stakes environments, the specific cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon in athletes remain underexplored. The research aims to characterize MW frequency, type, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation patterns using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), providing a scientific basis for neurofeedback interventions. The study involved 73 athletes (aged 18–30) who performed a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) under simulated high- or low-pressure conditions. Pressure was manipulated via spectators, video recording, and monetary incentives. Participants were also assigned to simple or complex task conditions. fNIRS monitored oxyhemoglobin (HbO) concentrations in the right and left dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventrolateral (VLPFC) prefrontal cortex. Thought probes randomly assessed whether participants were focusing or mind wandering, and if the latter, whether they were meta-conscious (aware) or non-meta-conscious of the distraction. Behavioral results indicated that MW occurred in 34.0% of probes. Crucially, there were no significant differences in the frequency or type of MW based on competitive pressure or task difficulty. However, fNIRS data revealed distinct neural patterns. The right DLPFC (R-DLPFC) showed significantly higher activation during MW states compared to focusing states. Furthermore, meta-conscious MW elicited significantly greater R-DLPFC activation than non-meta-conscious MW. Task difficulty also influenced neural activity, with the right VLPFC (R-VLPFC) exhibiting significantly higher activation during complex tasks compared to simple ones. No significant effects of pressure were observed on PFC activation. The findings suggest that MW in athletes is closely linked to R-DLPFC activity, particularly when athletes are aware of their distraction. The increased R-VLPFC activation during complex tasks indicates that higher cognitive demands engage specific executive control regions. These results challenge the assumption that competitive pressure inherently increases MW frequency in trained athletes, suggesting that athletic training may buffer against pressure-induced attentional lapses. The study highlights the utility of fNIRS in capturing real-time neural correlates of MW in ecologically valid settings and supports the development of targeted neurofeedback interventions to enhance attentional control in sports.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 11 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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