Motivational Coaching Cues Can Modulate Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Perceptual Responses of Elite Football Players During High‐Intensity Interval Training: A Randomised Crossover fNIRS Study.
Football coaches commonly provide verbal encouragement and exercise end‐point feedback to sustain players' effort by enhancing motivation during fitness training such as high‐intensity interval training (HIIT). However, the influence of such cues on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region involved in...
| Publicado en: | European Journal of Sport Science Vol. 26; no. 8; pp. 1 - 12 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts randomized controlled trial Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Aug2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=195899304&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 195899304 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 17461391 IX3 jtl: European Journal of Sport Science issn: 17461391 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 26 iid: 8 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 195899304 195899304 195899304 10.1002/ejsc.70222 195899304 ppf: 1 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Motivational Coaching Cues Can Modulate Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Perceptual Responses of Elite Football Players During High‐Intensity Interval Training: A Randomised Crossover fNIRS Study. aug: au: Han, Sanghyuk Ahn, SoYoung Sung, Yunho Seo, Ji‐won Li, Xinxing Han, Seungoh Kim, Chaewoon Song, Wook affil: Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea sug: subj: Soccer Athletes, Elite Prefrontal Cortex Physiology Motor Activity High-Intensity Interval Training Motivation Cues Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared Athletic Performance Task Performance and Analysis Human South Korea Male Athletes, Male Adult Randomized Controlled Trials Random Assignment Crossover Design Experimental Studies Ergometry Heart Rate Exertion Lactates Oxygenation Hemoglobins Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test Paired T-Tests Nonparametric Statistics Friedman Test Post Hoc Analysis Two-Tailed Test Exercise Tolerance Athletic Training Work Engagement Affect Fatigue Adult: 19-44 years Male ab: Football coaches commonly provide verbal encouragement and exercise end‐point feedback to sustain players' effort by enhancing motivation during fitness training such as high‐intensity interval training (HIIT). However, the influence of such cues on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region involved in exercise cessation decisions, remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effect of motivational cues on PFC activation during HIIT using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy, alongside physiological and perceptual responses. Twenty‐two male elite footballers completed two randomised crossover HIIT sessions on a cycle ergometer, with and without motivational cues. Each session consisted of 12 repetitions of 30‐s high‐intensity bouts, each interspersed with a 30‐s active recovery bout. Heart rate, lactate concentration, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), motivation‐related questionnaires and oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO2) concentration in the PFC were measured throughout HIIT. Although physiological responses were similar between conditions, perceived difficulty, assessed every three HIIT bouts, was significantly lower under the motivational condition, with lower RPE (p = 0.038) and higher motivation (p = 0.049), engagement (p = 0.038) and mood (p = 0.009) scores, particularly after the 9th repetition. From the 10th to 12th repetition of HIIT, the HbO2 concentrations of the orbitofrontal cortex and frontopolar PFC were significantly lower under the motivational condition (p = 0.040 and p = 0.036, respectively), whereas the dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC showed no significant difference between conditions. In conclusion, motivational cues reduce central PFC activity during the most fatiguing phases of HIIT, reflecting enhanced neural efficiency under motivation despite equivalent physical workloads. Highlights: Motivational coaching cues lead to lower perceptual difficulties and reduced central PFC demand during the later phase of HIIT when fatigue is most pronounced, indicating greater neural efficiency despite equivalent workloads.Differences in the central and lateral PFC responses may reflect region‐specific functional roles in the neural processing of motivational stimuli during repeated and fatiguing exercise.Coaches can employ motivational cues as a match strategy to delay performance impairment from prolonged physical and cognitive loads by attenuating central PFC activation and perceived effort. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts randomized controlled trial Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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