How game score shapes anticipatory swing decisions in baseball players: a functional MRI study

Contextual information influences action anticipation in sport, but how game-score cues shape perceptual processing and neural correlates remains unclear. This study used functional MRI to examine behavioral and neural responses to score context in baseball batters of varying skills. Skilled and intermediate batters viewed far-ahead or even score scenarios followed by a pitcher's delivery and predicted whether to swing. A no-score control condition was included. Participants rated perceived stress and confidence after each condition. Score cues did not affect anticipation accuracy in either group, but confidence was higher in far-ahead than even-score conditions. Skilled batters reported lower perceived stress than intermediates in the even-score condition, reflecting more adaptive responses. During score presentation, skilled batters showed lower right superior temporal gyrus activity than intermediates, suggesting more efficient integration of contextual cues. Group-by-score interactions revealed distinct neural patterns: skilled batters engaged left angular gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus for even-score information, reflecting semantic and symbolic processing. Conversely, intermediates recruited left middle to posterior cingulate and bilateral middle frontal gyri under far-ahead scores, indicating attentional control. During anticipation, skilled batters showed reduced caudate activity in the even-score condition, reflecting decreased cognitive engagement, while intermediates showed increased dorsal attention network activity in the no-score condition, reflecting compensatory attentional recruitment under uncertainty. These findings demonstrate skill-dependent neural reallocation between score processing and anticipation stages, highlighting how expertise shapes the integration of contextual and kinematic information to guide adaptive anticipatory decisions.