Noninvasive brain stimulation and athletic performance: a critical narrative review

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Neurorehabilitation
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Recent advances highlight non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) potential in sports and rehabilitation.
• Techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) are key areas of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically review evidence on NIBS for enhancing sports performance and supporting neurorehabilitation.
• To synthesize findings from studies involving athletes and healthy individuals performing sports-related tasks.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a narrative critical review.
• Performed a structured literature search across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar.
• Focused on studies examining NIBS effects on sports-related tasks in trained athletes and healthy individuals.

Main Results:

• NIBS modulates neural activity to improve motor learning, skill acquisition, strength, endurance, attention, decision-making, and emotional regulation.
• Demonstrated potential for accelerating the mastery of sport-specific skills crucial for competitive success.
• Observed improvements in brain network plasticity.

Conclusions:

• NIBS shows significant promise for optimizing athletic performance and facilitating rehabilitation.
• Heterogeneity in study designs and protocols, along with ethical concerns, currently limit widespread adoption.
• Further research is essential to clarify mechanisms, standardize protocols, and establish ethical guidelines for athlete safety and fair competition.