Get Your Brain in the Game

We all know that athletes have to be fast and strong. But what about smart? The famous baseball player Yogi Berra once said, “You can’t think and hit the ball at the same time.” A professional player (17)_____ may not be thinking very much, but he (or she) is using his brain in a very focused and expert manner. The player’s brain likely builds a mental model of the game, called a “forward model,” so (18)_____ .

Let’s say a soccer goalkeeper is watching a forward approach with the ball. His brain is already building on previous experience to predict whether (19)_____ . Mirror neurons likely help sports players make these predictions. When you watch someone else do something, like kick a ball, your mirror neurons fire as if (20)_____ , even if you’re standing still.

Salvatore Aglioti of Sapienza University of Rome thinks that professional athletes use mirror neurons to track their opponents’ actions, and anticipate what will happen next. In a study, Aglioti asked professional basketball players, novices, and sports scouts to watch the body motion of a player taking a shot, (21)_____ . Could they figure out if it did? “Compared to novices and sports scouts, elite athletes were better at predicting the outcome of a shot after watching the body motion of basketball players,” Aglioti told Science News.

Can you predict a shot in basketball just (22)_____ ? That seems incredible!