The neural correlates underlying the use of contextual and kinematic information processes during anticipation

Anticipation is the ability to accurately predict the outcome of an opponent’s actions ahead of the act itself. In cricket, recent studies reported that experts are able to use two sources of information: low-level kinematic cues from the bowler but also high-level contextual information related to the event (Runswick et al., 2018). This study aims to investigate the electrocortical activity underlying the use of these two sources of information in expert and novice cricket players. We recorded the electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in 14 expert and 10 novice cricket players when anticipating deliveries from bowlers in a video-based simulation task where the type of information presented to participants was manipulated. Video clips were displayed across three conditions, including clips with contextual information (game situation and field setting images), clips with kinematic information (video) and clips with both sources of information. Trials were occluded immediately after the ball release and anticipation measured by marking predicted ball location on scaled diagrams. Differences in anticipation accuracy were assessed with a Group (Expert; Novice) x Condition (Context; Video; Both information) mixed ANOVA analysis. The spectral changes of the EEG signal were evaluated with Event Related Spectral Perturbation (ERSP) analyses. We used non-parametric cluster-based permutation tests (Maris & Oostenveld, 2007) to assess conditional differences in sensor space and cluster-based randomization tests to control for multiple comparisons (Matlab, Fieldtrip toolbox). Behaviourally, the results demonstrated that experts showed better anticipation accuracy across the three conditions (p<0.05). Electrophysiologically, the ERSP analyses showed significant differences (p<0.01) in superior alpha and beta bands between the video and the game situation. While both groups demonstrated stronger desynchronisation in the video compared to the game situation, the spatial location of these effects was more widespread in the novices (a cluster of 11 centro-posterior electrodes) than in the experts (a cluster of 4 posterior electrodes). A similar pattern of results was found for the difference between the game situation and the field setting. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that all the available sources of information are relevant for the expert players to predict future actions’ outcome. In the group of novices, the EEG results suggest that they rely more on the field setting and the kinematic information rather than on the game situation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide electrocortical evidence of skill-based differences in the processing of contextual and kinematic information.