Higher psycho‐physiological refinement in world‐class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity

This study tested the hypothesis that the degree of psycho‐physiological development is related to performance level in world‐class athletes. We compared physiological and psychological patterns of 33 Norwegian world‐class athletes to patterns in 33 average performing athletes. The subjects were matched for gender, age, and type of sport. Electroencephalography activity was recorded to measure brain integration; skin conductance was recorded to measure habituation to a loud stimulus; and paper‐and‐pencil tests were given to assess self‐development, moral development, and frequency of peak experiences. A factor analysis (varimax rotation) reduced the eight variables to three factors that together accounted for 65.3% of the total variance: (1) physiological integration – brain integration and habituation rates, (2) self‐ and moral development, and (3) peak experiences. A MANOVA conducted on the factor scores showed a significant main effect for the experimental group collapsing across the three factors (P<0.0001). Individual ANOVAs showed significantly higher values for development (P=0.021) and physiological integration (P<0.0001) factor scores for the world‐class athletes. The above measures can be seen as different expressions of an underlying dimension – human development. These data support the concept that higher psycho‐physiological growth underlies higher performance.