Effect of Brief Mindfulness and Relaxation Inductions on Anxiety, Affect and Brain Activation in Athletes

Effect of Brief Mindfulness and Relaxation Inductions on Anxiety, Affect and Brain Activation in Athletes

Effect of Brief Mindfulness and Relaxation Inductions on Anxiety, Affect and Brain Activation in Athletes

The athlete population has a high risk of suffering from mental health problems (e.g., anxiety), especially for athletes with individual sports. As such, various forms of mental training were used to maintain the mental health of athletes, such as mindfulness training or relaxation training. However, differences pertaining to the electrophysiological mechanisms resulting from both mental training in athletes are unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the differential effects between the brief mindfulness induction (MI) and relaxation induction (RI) on state anxiety, affect and the activation of the brain in track and field athletes.

The purposes of this study are: (1) examining the effect of brief mindfulness induction (MI) and relaxation induction (RI) on anxiety and affect in athletes with individual sports, (2) and we sought to identify the different brain activity (i.e., theta, alpha) changes between MI and RI using EEG. In the present study, subjects were contrasted using a within-subject comparison across MI, RI, and control condition. According to past works on the comparison of mindfulness and psychological skill training, we hypothesized that MI and RI would both improve anxiety and affect, compared with control condition. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that RI would elicit greater theta power (i.e., more cognitive control) than MI. In addition, when compared with control condition, participants might be elicited greater alpha power during the MI and RI.

In a counterbalanced order, participants completed three conditions that incorporated two 30-minute experimental conditions (i.e., MI or RI) and a control condition (i.e., opened thinking)

In the MI condition, participants were guided to focus on present experiences regarding the thoughts, emotions and sensations through the three classic mindfulness exercises (i.e., focused breathing, meditation, and body scanning). The duration of MI was 30-minutes.

In the RI condition, participants were guided to relax each muscle group following the audio for 30-minutes.

The Chinese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (C-STAI, Wang & Chung, 2016), which is based on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI, Spielberger, 1970), was utilized to assess an individual's alteration of state anxiety before and after each experimental manipulation in current study. The State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) is a 20-item sub-scales in the STAI, with a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much so) used for each item. Higher total scores indicate higher levels of state anxiety.

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) was utilized to assess an individual's alteration of PA and NA before and after each experimental manipulation in current study. PANAS is a 20-items questionnaire that consists of two 10-item mood scales assessing the positively affective states (i.e., PA) and negatively affective states (i.e., NA), respectively. Participants were asked to rate to what extent they felt a certain way right now from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). Higher total scores indicate higher intensity of affective state.

The selected frequency bands were as theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha (8-13 Hz), the frequency bands were computed by averaged across epochs and integrated spectral power, the frontal region (Fp1, Fp2, F7, F3, Fz, F4, F8) for theta power, and posterior region (P7, P3, Pz, P4, P8, O1, Oz, O2) for alpha power were selected into the statistical analysis, respectively.

Inclusion Criteria: track and field athletes with regular training right-handedness no history of neurological illness no regular training experience in mindfulness or relaxation interventions Exclusion Criteria: -