Neuroplasticity

One of the things we like to say is that coaches are educators. Yes, we are trying to create athletes that are stronger and faster, but above all, we are trying to teach athletes how to move, sprint, rotate, change direction, etc.  As a result, we continue to look at how athletes learn a new skill. This is where the topic of neuroplasticity really intrigues me. Neuroplasticity is the capacity of neurons and neural networks in the brain to change their connections and behavior in response to new information.  Basically, it is the ability of the brain to change and adapt its communication pathways to learn. Change or reorganization of the brain’s neural networks can take place in many different circumstances; sensory stimulation, development, and new information can all change and alter how one part of the brain communicates with another. The greatest amount of neural plasticity takes place at a young age when the brain rapidly forms neural connections called synapses. As the brain continues to process sensory information, some of these synapses strengthen and others weaken. This is essentially the process of skill acquisition. 

The greatest amount of neuroplasticity occurs during the first few years of life called developmental plasticity. This is essentially where the child develops about double the amount of synapses that a normal adult would have. These are then trimmed down based on which ones the child uses most often and which ones (communication pathways) they never use. There are really 2 forms of neuroplasticity that we are concerned with when it comes to performance training, cross-modal reassignment and map expansion. These forms of neuroplasticity operate by much the same mechanism but under different circumstances. For example, these can come about by changes in the body (injury) that subsequently alter the balance of sensory activity received by the brain, or the reinforcement of sensory information through experience, such as in learning.

Cross-modal reassignment is the process by which one area of the brain actually performs or contributes to a specific function that cannot be carried out by the intended area of the brain. The most common example would be a blind man who can somehow grasp the layout of the room through touch. In the performance realm, however, we commonly contribute this type of neuroplasticity to “body-awareness” or athletes who seem to know where they are at in space without looking. For example, you may tell an athlete to shorten their stride length during their next sprint. One athlete may take that cue and on the very next sprint give you exactly what you were looking for. Another athlete may have to see exactly what you mean first, then maybe slow the movement down until the body can memorize it. The first athlete demonstrates a greater amount of proprioception, without the use of sight. This is also why we employ an “eyes closed” balance test because we get the true balance of the body when the eyes can’t contribute any sensory input. The method by which this occurs is because all the sensory cortices of the brain—visual, auditory, olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and somatosensory have a similar six-layer processing structure. Meaning they all communicate with the brain using the same “language.”

The second form of neuroplasticity we are concerned with is map expansion. This is the process where local brain regions that are dedicated to a specific function, or information, are able to expand or shrink based on skill acquisition. When one function is carried out frequently enough through repeated behavior or stimulus, the region of the cortical map dedicated to this function grows and shrinks as an individual “exercises” this function. Simply put, as a player begins to master the skill of sprinting, or swinging a bat, the region in the brain that controls those functions expands. However, the region only expands as the individual gains implicit familiarity with the skill. Once the learning becomes explicit, the region will shrink to a baseline size. Meaning, athletes need to learn through trial and error! It is ok for athletes to go through drills and exercises that might not be perfect. They are better off making adjustments during physical practice than they are trying to memorize the movements. This is where we might use our Senaptec strobe glasses during front toss, or maybe during cone drills. We want the athlete to identify the rep as a success based on how they felt, not if they hit a specific checklist in their mind during each part of the drill. 

So what does this mean for training athletes? We saw 2 takeaways for our training setting. First, don’t over coach. Let athletes go through drills multiple times. Give them maybe one or two points of feedback and let them do it again. It is not necessary to have skill mastery before attempting to perform the skill, in fact, I would even say that is impossible. Our second take away is to introduce variability to keep stimulating progression. Once the brain becomes accustomed to a certain stimulus, it becomes imperative to be able to challenge the mind through variation. This lets us continue to train similar or even that same movement patterns while continuing to grow implicit knowledge of the mind. This can be done by simply taking a cone drill and adding auditory or visual cues to create and “read and respond” environment. Physical attributes need to be trained to build great athletes, but we believe we can serve our athletes better by building the mind at the same time. 

Sources

Hampton, Debbie. “Neuroplasticity: 10 Fundamentals of Rewiring Your Brain.” Reset.me, 10AD, reset.me/story/neuroplasticity-the-10-fundamentals-of-rewiring-your-brain/.

Rugnetta, Michael. “Neuroplasticity.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 June 2017, www.britannica.com/science/neuroplasticity.

Sharma, Nikhill, and James Rowe. “Motor Imagery after Stroke: Relating Outcome to Motor Network Connectivity.” Annals of Neurology, 29 July 2009, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.21810