The Perceptual Anticipation Of The Tennis Players Hit The Ball Line:Differences And Neural Mechanisms

Perceptual anticipation involves the psychological process of the athletes to judge or predict upcoming events based on partial or explicit information.Accordingly,the ability of perceptual anticipation is the ability of the performers to anticipate,judge and decide on random events during matches or trainings.Specifically during a tennis tournament,it is always a goal for the players and their coach to anticipate direction of shots and point of fall before making a right decision and effective response in the light of the movements of the opponent and the starting time and speed of shots.This study explores the ethological pattern and cranial nerves activity of tennis players of various levels at "stalemate"with the help of behavioral techniques and EEG technology,seeking to test and improve the process of perceptual anticipation in tennis matches,and thus is of prime significance for tennis training and competition.Experiment A adopts the E-Prime technology to display videos of tennis match during "stalemate" with an aim to observe the ethological pattern of tennis players of different levels when they make predictions about the routine of shots during a "stalemate".Results:the 1st-class group performs better than the beginner group in the judgment of cross-court and straight shots,and much better in the accuracy and reaction time of the former than the latter;the beginner group,on the other hand,shows no difference in the accuracy and reaction time between the cross-court and straight shots.The results show that the 1st-class group is faster and more precise in predicting routine of shots during the"stalemate" of a tennis match,and more effective in anticipating cross-court shots.Experiment B explores the perceptual anticipation pattern of tennis players of different levels in the shot routines at various points of time by displaying to them pictures of several points of time during a stalemate of the tennis tournament with E-Prime technology.Results:Both the 2nd-class group and the 1st-class group are much more accurate in the judgment of cross-court shots than straight shots;while the 1st-class group is markedly better than the 2nd-class group at TO and T1,there is no difference between the 2nd-class group and the beginner group;there is no discrepancy between the 1st-class and the 2nd-class group at T2 and T3 whereas the latter excels the beginner group;and it takes much longer to react to straight shots than cross-court shots in general-the 1st-class group spends much less time on reacting than the 2nd-class group at TO and T1 while the latter exhibits no difference from the beginner group;it costs the lst-class group and the 2nd-class group similar time to respond,and the 2nd-class group reacts much faster than the beginner group at T2 and T3.Thus,of higher level the tennis players are,the better they are able to predict the shot routines with earlier response time point,quicker reaction and higher accurateness.In addition,the fact that it takes the 1st-class group and the 2nd-class group similar time to respond at T2 and T3 implies that T2 is a key point for anticipation.Experiment C exhibits the photos of the tennis match at T2 and T3 with E-Prime technology,and studies the perceptual anticipation and neural mechanism of tennis players to the routines of shot using Event-related Potentials(ERPs)technology.Results:the 2nd-class group is more precise with shorter response time than the beginner group at T2 and T3;and ERPs reveal that the beginner group triggers greater N1 and N2 amplitude than the 2nd-class group.The prediction of straight shots causes larger N2 amplitude than that of cross-court shots as shown by the electrode at the forehead.Similarly,the prediction of straight shots induces greater N2 amplitude than that of cross-court shots at T3.Furthermore,the skilled group(2nd-class group)results in larger P2 and P3 amplitude than the beginner group at T2 and T3.According to these results,the expert players devote small amount of cognitive resources to perceiving the stimulus,but a rather large part of the resources are applied to discern and process it and integrate the matching information,therefore having a more distinct cognitive advantages.Experiment D presents the pictures of the tennis match at TO and T1 with E-Prime technology,and aims to find out the perceptual anticipation and neural mechanism of tennis players of different levels towards the shot routines at TO and T1 using ERPs technology.Results:the 1st-class group(professional athletes)is more accurate and reacting much faster than the 2nd-class group at TO and T1;the effect of time points is notable with the accuracy much higher at T1 than TO;ERPs demonstrate that the 2nd-class group triggers larger N1 and N2 amplitude than the 1st-class group.As shown by the electrode on the forehead,the anticipation of straight shots brings about greater N2 amplitude than cross-court shots,and the same fact happens at T1.At TO and T1,however,the 1st-class group leads to greater P2 and P3 amplitude than the 2nd-class group.These results show that the more skilled the players are,the fewer cognitive resources they employ in the perception of stimulus.Instead,they use the large part of the resources to distinguish and process the stimulus,exhibiting noticeable cognitive advantages.Additionally,the more difficult the task is,the more attention is drawn and the more energy is consumed.In conclusion,the most skilled tennis players gain notable advantages in the perceptual anticipation with quickest reaction to the stimulus,earliest activation of attention and the most effective processing of cognitive information.They are able to grasp the earliest possible chance to quickly and precisely respond to their prediction of shot routines at the stalemate of a match as they extract and integrate the cognitive information speedily by assigning less cognitive resources at the perception stage and more at distinguishing and processing the stimulus with distinct cognitive advantages;the skillful tennis players are highly sensitive to the cognitive information,and therefore exactly determine and identify the key time points and information;long-term and systematic professional trainings enable the expert tennis players to form their way of memorizing the time points,top-down information processing and perceptual-cognitive techniques with the latter playing a critical role in discerning and matching information;in the perceptual anticipation of tennis players,the frontal lobe and occipital lobe of their cerebral cortex take part in the information processing.