Romaniuk A. Special Aspects of Neurophysiologic and Vegetative Processes in People Engaged in Different Sport Activities

The PhD thesis focuses on the special aspects of neurophysiologic and autonomic processes in people engaged in different types of physical exercise as the necessary stage for elaboration of criteria for the integrated assessment of an athlete’s potential and perspectives in the chosen sport (football or sprint). The objective of the research is to determine special features of neurophysiologic and autonomic processes in people engaged in different types of athletic activities and exercising. Activity sources were recorded in forepart and posterior part of the cortex in the process of defining localization of evoked performance sources in footballers. The activity was detected in footballers’ parietal parts of brain cortex during the series of «Where» stimuli. Activity sources were noted in sprinters’ inferior temporal gyrus while perceiving and processing information of What-stimuli series. The localization study of the settled dipoles in the examined athletes allowed establishing the fact that the analysis of sources of advanced EP components shows participation of different brain structures (temporal, parietal and frontal parts) in identification, differentiation and retention of significant stimuli. Non-athletes were also mainly characterized by evoked activity sources in thalamus, parietal parts of brain cortex. The results show potentialities for the method of mapping and three-dimensional localization of endogenous EP for the spatial-temporal analysis of complicated cognitive processes in athletes of different sports. The analysis of results of heart rate variability demonstrates the difference of heart rate in footballers and sprinters. The rise in density of heart capacity high frequency spectrum was observed in sprinters. Lower figures of heart capacity in the high frequency range were recorded in footballers. The footballers were marked by a higher level of activation in the sympathetic division of vegetative nervous system. But a lower intensity of regulatory systems was observed in sprinters as well as a higher level of physical training in comparison with the footballers. By analyzing the correlation of amplitude-temporal characteristics high links of advanced components latency were detected in both groups of the athletes examined during the spectatorship of What and Where significant stimuli. Multiplexing of latency links was recorded in frontal, central and temporal parts of brain cortex. The amplitude links of advanced components of cortex biopotentials were marked by mean links mainly in sagittal central lobe as well as parietal parts of cortex. It is due to the fact that more parts of brain cortex are involved in problem-solving and establishing functional interconnections in footballers. In sprinters short-term links for problem-solving were recorded due to their specific sport specialization profile. The elaboration of diagnostic methods for not only an athlete’s mental condition but their cognitive and vegetative function of proficiency and potential in the chosen sport holds a prominent place in the sport of setting records. A coach has to have information about a level of young athlete’s potential to plan and control the process of sport training effectively and to achieve the desired results. The practicable guidelines aiming at obtaining unbiased information have been created; they are based on the integrated study of different sides of an athlete’s proficiency, namely their cognitive, vegetative and psycho physiological functions. Thus, it was determined and proved that sport activity has a positive effect on processes of perception and processing of significant information in the brain cortex and it improves mechanisms of adaptation to physical loads.