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Attention and concentration are crucial abilities that affect the decision-making of athletes; e.g. during a soccer action, an athlete has to divide attention on the field (teammates, opponents, ball), to use selective attention (which player to give the ball to) and to focus attention (staring at the net to score). To this purpose, many benefits may arise from the high-level NeuroTracker conditioning technique as it stimulates active processing of dynamic visual information and trains perceptual- cognitive functions of athletes. In particular, it targets selective, dynamic and sustained attention, as well as working memory.

23 university soccer players participated in the study and were randomly allocated to three different groups. Experimental group: performed 30 NeuroTracker Core sessions over a 5 week period Active control group: performed 30 3D soccer videos sessions over 5 week periodPassive control group: No particular training activity over a 5 week period.Players ’ decision-making was evaluated during standardized small sided games before and after the training period. Decision-making of soccer players was objectively analysed through video recordings of the small sided games by a soccer coach blinded to the experimental protocol and using a standardized coding criteria. Subjective decision-making accuracy was directly evaluated from players’ confidence levels in decision-making promptly after the games using a Visual Analog Scale (Sport Performance Scale).

Only the NeuroTracker trained group showed an increase (15%) in passing decision making on the field after the training. Moreover, players’ subjective decision-making assessment was quantitatively proportional to the improvement in decision-making accuracy rated during video analysis for theNeuroTracker trained group.These results seem to demonstrate that passing decision-making accuracy improvement in the trained group represents a meaningful training effect. For the first time, this study demonstrates a perceptual-cognitive transfer from the laboratory to the field following a non-sport specific perceptual-cognitive training program.

To investigate the influence of dietary intake and sleep of esports athletes on cognitive performance and learning capacities measured by NeuroTracker.

119 esports athletes completed a rigorous battery of assessments over an 8-10 day period. This included a comprehensive range of 8 self-assessment surveys, a record of diet, fluid intake and urine color, continuous biometric monitoring of heartrate and sleep quality, and 20 sessions of NeuroTracker distributed over the period.

Average sleep quality was found to be in the range of moderate to severe sleep disturbance and most participants did not meet USDA guidelines for numerous key nutrients, as well as exceeding recommendations for cholesterol, sodium, and saturated fat. NeuroTracker baselines improved on average by around 50% by the end of the 20 sessions (similar to elite athletes). Higher NeuroTracker performance was strongly correlated with better sleep and dietary habits, and specifically, consuming the recommended intake of protein was closely tied to increased learning rates.

To assess the learning capacities of elite athlete populations compared to amateur athletes and nonathlete university students on a neutral cognitive training assessment (NeuroTracker).

308 participants were assessed by completing 15 distributed NeuroTracker sessions, grouped as the following: 102 professional elite athletes (NHL, EPL and Top 14 Rugby), 173 NCAA elite non-professional athletes, and 33 non-athlete university students.

The results showed a clear distinction between level of athletic performance and corresponding fundamental mental capacities for learning a demanding abstract and dynamic scene task. Elite athletes showed significantly higher initial baselines than the other groups, along with substantially superior learning rates. The elite non-professional athletes also similarly significantly higher learning rates over the non-athletes group. For the first time this evidence suggest that a defining characteristic of elite professional athletes is their perceptual-cognitive learning prowess, associated with unusually high levels of neuroplasticity, and that NeuroTracker is a sensitive tool for objectively assessing these abilities.

To determine if variance in hydration status would be associated with cognitive performance, as assessed by NeuroTracker.

121 participants performed 15 NeuroTracker sessions across 10 days of visits to the laboratory. On the days of training, recent fluid intake, urine color (Urine color scale, UC), and body water (BIA) were documented.

Individuals with average urine color indicating good hydration performed significantly worse on NeuroTracker than those with a borderline dehydrated indicator, as based on urine color. Participants with no recent beverage consumption performed significantly better than those who had recently consumed water, tea, coffee , and milk. The researchers suggested that optimal hydration may not occur at the highest values of the urine color scale possibly due to moderate hyponatremia and hemodilution that could impact NeuroTracker performance.

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To investigate if the typically declining perceptual-cognitive abilities of healthy older people can be improved with NeuroTracker training.

20 younger adults (mean age 27 years old) and 20 older adults (mean age 66 years old) completed 3-hours of NeuroTracker training distributed over 3 weeks.

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Although older adults had significantly lower NeuroTracker scores than older adults, they demonstrated a strong learning response to the training, equivalent to their younger peers. By the end of the training program the older adults closely matched the initial baseline performance of younger adults. Although the results demonstrate a decline in perceptual-cognitive functions from healthy aging, the results suggest this decline can be quickly reversed with a short training intervention.

To investigate if the decline in biological motion perception associated with healthy aging can be reversed with a short NeuroTracker training intervention.

13 participants completed 3-hours of NeuroTracker training over 5-weeks, and 28 control participants did either experimental training or no training (overall mean age of 67 years old). Pre-post assessments of biological motion perception was assessed with a VR walker (point like display) at 4m and 16m.

Pre-NeuroTracker training participants displayed significantly lower performance for interpreting human movement at 4m, compared to 16m. Controls showed no change post-training, whereas the NeuroTracker trained group's performance at 4m rose to the level of their performance at 16m. As biological motion perception abilities are deemed to be important for social skills, as well as critical for collision avoidance at 4m, the researchers concluded that the results demonstrate NeuroTracker to be a useful form of generic training for helping older people deal with socially relevant dynamic scenes.

To to determine if NeuroTracker training could affect off-the-block reaction times, by improving selection attention in university athlete swimmers.

15 male and female varsity swimmers were divided into active and control groups. The active group completed a training intervention of 10 NeuroTracker sessions, controls did no training. Pre and post training the participants were assessed 3 times on for off-the-block reaction times using the Ares Omega Timing System.

The control group showed a moderate improvement in reaction time, however the NeuroTracker trained group showed large improvement in reaction time (-11%). This pilot study indicates that selective attention may be a critical factor in reaction time performance, and that a short intervention of NeuroTracker training can significantly improve reaction times.

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To assess the inhibitory effects of physiological fatigue on cognitive function in elite athletes, and to determine if perceptual-cognitive conditioning can reduce any such effects.

22 rugby players from the Top 14 French Professional Rugby League were divided into two groups. The trained group underwent 15 NeuroTracker Core training sessions, and the untrained group did only 3 Core sessions (sitting) to determine an initial baseline measure. All the athletes were then assessed on NeuroTracker while performing on an exercise bike at 80% of their maximum heartrate.

For the trained group, NeuroTracker speed thresholds remained within 0.03% of the range of their baseline (performed sitting). For the untrained group, NeuroTracker speed thresholds dropped by 30% from their predicted baseline. Firstly, the findings suggest that physical fatigue can significantly reduce high-level cognitive functions elicited by the NeuroTracker task, even with seasoned professionals. Secondly, the results also indicate that such effects can be mitigated with prior perceptual-cognitive conditioning, with as little as 90 minutes of distributed training.

To assess transfer from a NeuroTracker training intervention to near, mid-level, far transfer tasks.

84 graduate participants (av. 21 years old) were randomized to 3 trained groups and 1 passive control group. The trained groups completed either 5 or 3 standard sessions of NeuroTracker, or 5 sessions of a portable version of NeuroTracker (Microsoft Surface Pro tablet). The passive group completed only pre-post NeuroTracker baselines. All groups then completed pre-post assessments on a simplified 2D multiple object tracking task, an N-back working memory assessment, and on a video-based military driving task.

All trained groups showed significant improvements in NeuroTracker scores from 20-30 minutes of training. The passive control group also showed some modest improvements from only completing baselines. NeuroTracker training transferred to significant pre-post improvements in the 2D multiple object tracking test, but with smaller effects that improvements in NeuroTracker scores. Performance was found to be significantly better post-training for the trained groups on the working memory test, but not for the control group. No transfer effects were found for the video-based military task.