How to orchestrate a soccer team

Generalized synchronization promoted by rhythmic acoustic stimuli

authored by

Manfred A. Müller, Antonietta Martínez-Guerrero , Maria Corsi-Cabrera, Alfred Oliver Effenberg, Armin Friedrich, Ignacia Garcia-Madrid, Matthias Hornschuh, Gerd Schmitz, Markus F. Müller

Abstract

Interpersonal coordination requires precise actions concerted in space and time in a self-organized manner. We found, using soccer teams as a testing ground, that a common timeframe provided by adequate acoustic stimuli improves the interplay between teammates. We provide quantitative evidence that the connectivity between teammates and the scoring rate of male soccer teams improve significantly when playing under the influence of an appropriate acoustic environment. Unexpectedly, female teams do not show any improvement under the same experimental conditions. We show by follow-up experiments that the acoustic rhythm modulates the attention level of the participants with a pronounced tempo preference and a marked gender difference in the preferred tempo. These results lead to a consistent explanation in terms of the dynamical system theory, nonlinear resonances, and dynamic attention theory, which may illuminate generic mechanisms of the brain dynamics and may have an impact on the design of novel training strategies in team sports.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Sports Science

External Organisation(s)

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos
University of Hildesheim

Type

Article

Journal

Frontiers in human neuroscience

Volume

16

ISSN

1662-5161

Publication date

29.07.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Neurology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Biological Psychiatry, Behavioral Neuroscience

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.909939 (Access: Open)