Executive functions and sport agents

El objetivo de la presente revisión es investigar la producción científica de artículos que relacionen a los agentes deportivos (deportistas, entrenadores, árbitros) con las funciones ejecutivas (FE). Para ello, se realizó una búsqueda en WoS que arrojó 703 resultados. Un cribado de las referencias siguiendo las directrices PRISMA dejó 94 artículos con los que se llevó a cabo un análisis bibliométrico y revisión de los temas subyacentes que son FE de dominio general y específico en relación con el deportista, FE y tipo de deporte, detección de talentos, relación entre FE y habilidades específicas en el deporte, FE y posición en el terreno de juego, paradigma del experto/deportista de élite y las FE, FE y otros agentes deportivos y deportistas de élite con discapacidad y FE. En vista de los resultados, si bien parece haber un consenso sobre la importancia de las FE en el deporte, se requieren más estudios longitudinales que certifiquen su valor. Estudios recientes parecen indicar que no es trascendental en la detección de talentos. De la misma manera, existen indicios sobre su rol en deportistas que practican disciplinas abiertas y de oposición y sobre las diferencias existentes entre deportistas y no deportistas o expertos y noveles. Junto con lo expuesto anteriormente, se requieren pruebas que evalúen las FE con validez ecológica y de constructo y es necesario que el valor de las FE se traslade a la investigación con otros agentes deportivos como entrenadores o árbitros.The present review aims at investigating the scientific production with respect to the link between executive functions (EF) and sport agents (athletes, players, coaches, umpires). For that purpose, a series of searches were carried out on WoS that yielded 703 references. Upon a screening process following the PRISMA guidelines, a total of 94 papers were used to complete a bibliometric analysis together with a scoping review. Some underlying themes were detected, namely, domain-general vs domain-specific EF tests in sport, EF and type of sport, talent detection, EF and sport-specific skills, EF and position on the field/court, expert/elite paradigm and EF, EF and other sport agents and high-performance athletes with disabilities and the role of EF. In light of results, more longitudinal studies are required to confirm their value in athlete´s development, albeit the consensus with regard to their importance. Recent studies indicate the lack of predictive value of EF in talent detection. Likewise, there some indicators that point out to their role in open-skills, strategic sports as well as in the difference found between athletes and non-athletes and experts versus amateurs. In addition, domain-specific tasks are required to assess EF with both ecological and construct validity and EF should also be used to test other sport agents, such as coaches and referees/umpires

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

DAC-driven Integrative Network Regulation and Pathway Coordination in Breast Cancer

Epigenetic variation represents a mechanism of regulation for genes expressed in different cancer histotypes. We considered breast cancer, and investigated differential expression following treatment with the 5-Aza-2\u27-deoxycytidine or DAC, a demethylating agent. Several oncogenic signalling pathways altered upon DAC treatment were detected with significant enrichment, and a regulatory map integrating Transcription Factors and microRNAs was derived. The ultimate goal is deciphering the potential molecular mechanisms induced by DAC therapy in MCF7 cell

Exploiting Opponent Modeling For Learning In Multi-agent Adversarial Games

An issue with learning effective policies in multi-agent adversarial games is that the size of the search space can be prohibitively large when the actions of both teammates and opponents are considered simultaneously. Opponent modeling, predicting an opponent’s actions in advance of execution, is one approach for selecting actions in adversarial settings, but it is often performed in an ad hoc way. In this dissertation, we introduce several methods for using opponent modeling, in the form of predictions about the players’ physical movements, to learn team policies. To explore the problem of decision-making in multi-agent adversarial scenarios, we use our approach for both offline play generation and real-time team response in the Rush 2008 American football simulator. Simultaneously predicting the movement trajectories, future reward, and play strategies of multiple players in real-time is a daunting task but we illustrate how it is possible to divide and conquer this problem with an assortment of data-driven models. By leveraging spatio-temporal traces of player movements, we learn discriminative models of defensive play for opponent modeling. With the reward information from previous play matchups, we use a modified version of UCT (Upper Conference Bounds applied to Trees) to create new offensive plays and to learn play repairs to counter predicted opponent actions. iii In team games, players must coordinate effectively to accomplish tasks while foiling their opponents either in a preplanned or emergent manner. An effective team policy must generate the necessary coordination, yet considering all possibilities for creating coordinating subgroups is computationally infeasible. Automatically identifying and preserving the coordination between key subgroups of teammates can make search more productive by pruning policies that disrupt these relationships. We demonstrate that combining opponent modeling with automatic subgroup identification can be used to create team policies with a higher average yardage than either the baseline game or domain-specific heuristics

Cognitively Sensitive User Interface for Command and Control Applications

While there are broad guidelines for display or user interface design, creating effective human-computer interfaces for complex, dynamic systems control is challenging. Ad hoc approaches which consider the human as an afterthought are limiting. This research proposed a systematic approach to human / computer interface design that focuses on both the semantic and syntactic aspects of display design in the context of human-in-the-loop supervisory control of intelligent, autonomous multi-agent simulated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A systematic way to understand what needs to be displayed, how it should be displayed, and how the integrated system needs to be assessed is outlined through a combination of concepts from naturalistic decision making, semiotic analysis, and situational awareness literature. A new sprocket-based design was designed and evaluated in this research. For the practical designer, this research developed a systematic, iterative design process: design using cognitive sensitive principles, test the new interface in a laboratory situation; bring in subject matter experts to examine the interface in isolation; and finally, incorporate the resulting feedback into a full-size simulation. At each one of these steps, the operator, the engineer and the designer reexamined the results

Epigenetics of human cutaneous melanoma: setting the stage for new therapeutic strategies

Cutaneous melanoma is a very aggressive neoplasia of melanocytic origin with constantly growing incidence and mortality rates world-wide. Epigenetic modifications (i.e., alterations of genomic DNA methylation patterns, of post-translational modifications of histones, and of microRNA profiles) have been recently identified as playing an important role in melanoma development and progression by affecting key cellular pathways such as cell cycle regulation, cell signalling, differentiation, DNA repair, apoptosis, invasion and immune recognition. In this scenario, pharmacologic inhibition of DNA methyltransferases and/or of histone deacetylases were demonstrated to efficiently restore the expression of aberrantly-silenced genes, thus re-establishing pathway functions. In light of the pleiotropic activities of epigenetic drugs, their use alone or in combination therapies is being strongly suggested, and a particular clinical benefit might be expected from their synergistic activities with chemo-, radio-, and immuno-therapeutic approaches in melanoma patients. On this path, an important improvement would possibly derive from the development of new generation epigenetic drugs characterized by much reduced systemic toxicities, higher bioavailability, and more specific epigenetic effects

Attention allocation in complementary joint action: How joint goals affect spatial orienting

When acting jointly, individuals often attend and respond to the same object or spatial location in complementary ways (e.g., when passing a mug, one person grasps its handle with a precision grip; the other receives it with a whole-hand grip). At the same time, the spatial relation between individuals’ actions affects attentional orienting: one is slower to attend and respond to locations another person previously acted upon than to alternate locations (“social inhibition of return”, social IOR). Achieving joint goals (e.g., passing a mug), however, often requires complementary return responses to a co-actor’s previous location. This raises the question of whether attentional orienting, and hence the social IOR, is affected by the (joint) goal our actions are directed at. The present study addresses this question. Participants responded to cued locations on a computer screen, taking turns with a virtual co-actor. They pursued either an individual goal or performed complementary actions with the co-actor, in pursuit of a joint goal. Four experiments showed that the social IOR was significantly modulated when participant and co-actor pursued a joint goal. This suggests that attentional orienting is affected not only by the spatial but also by the social relation between two agents’ actions. Our findings thus extend research on interpersonal perception-action effects, showing that the way another agent’s perceived action shapes our own depends on whether we share a joint goal with that agent