Harung, H., F. Travis, et al. (in review). "High Levels of Brain Integration in World-class Norwegian Athletes: Towards a Brain Measure of Mental Fitness." Scandanavian Journal of Exercise and Sport.    

Abstract: 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. EEG 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 < .0001). Individual ANOVAs showed significantly higher values for Development (p = .021) and Physiological Integration (p < .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.