Visuomotor expertise in volleyball: saccadic latency and absolute alpha power

This study investigated differences in saccadic latency and absolute alpha power during eye movement preparation between young volleyball athletes and non-athletes. Two experimental paradigms were employed: fixed (memory-guided) and random (stimulus-guided) saccadic tasks. Thirty participants (15 athletes, 15 non-athletes) performed these tasks while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from prefrontal and frontal cortical regions. Behaviorally, saccadic latency was significantly shorter in the random task compared to the fixed task; however, no significant group differences were observed. Electrophysiological analyses demonstrated that volleyball athletes consistently exhibited lower absolute alpha power at frontal and prefrontal electrode sites (Fp2, F7, F8, Fz, F4), suggesting heightened cortical engagement during visuomotor preparation. Both groups showed reduced alpha power in the random condition at lateral frontal sites (F7, F8), indicating enhanced attentional allocation to unpredictable stimuli. These findings imply that sports expertise may manifest as subtle neural adaptations not easily detected by behavioral measures like reaction time, thus underscoring the value of EEG in elucidating training-induced neurophysiological changes. Future research should utilize ecologically valid tasks and higher-density EEG recordings to further delineate the neural mechanisms underpinning sports expertise.