Maurizio Bertollo

• PhD; Sport Science; Psychology; Pedagogy; Pysical Education; Chartered Sport Psychologist; Licensed Psychologist; Licensed Psychoterapist
• Professor at University of Chieti-Pescara

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) neurofeedback training (NFT) and biofeedback training (BFT) intervention on ice hockey shooting performance. Specifically, the purpose was to examine (a) whether an NFT/BFT program could improve ice hockey shooting performance, (b) whether the implementati...

The use of brain technology in practice, and its combined use with other technologies, needs careful attention. This chapter introduces the main issues related to the use of these technologies in practice. It discusses the multimodal and multidimensional framework of intervention in sport psychophysiology, the technical and the methodological issue...

Various methods have been employed to investigate different aspects of brain activity modulation related to the performance of a cycling task. In our study, we examined how functional connectivity and brain network efficiency varied during an endurance cycling task. For this purpose, we reconstructed EEG signals at source level: we computed current...

Objectives The aim of the current study was to systematically review the literature on the integration of technology in psychological skills training (PST) to optimize elite athletes’ performance. Design Systematic review. Method Published English, Italian, and Russian language articles were identified using electronic databases. Eighteen article...

Italy was one of the most impacted countries by the COVID-19 crisis, with detrimental effects on the world of sports. In this exploratory study, we examined Italian athletes’ perceived stress and functional/dysfunctional psychobiosocial states during the COVID-19 crisis, comparing current assessment scores with data collected prior to the pandemic....

Using EEG-hyperscanning, neuroscientists showed that non-verbal joint actions are associated with different patterns of interpersonal neural coupling (INC), influenced by factors such as the type of joint action investigated, the experimental task used, and the analytical approach employed. The present systematic scoping review aims to identify the...

Background/Objectives: The characteristics of open- and closed-skill sports can have a significant impact on the development of both motor and cognitive functions during late childhood and early adolescence. This study examined the impact of artistic gymnastics and soccer practice on physical/coordinative skills and executive functions in preadoles...

Purpose: Confirmation bias, a cognitive phenomenon deeply ingrained in human thinking, shapes our perception of reality. It leads individuals to favor information that aligns with their preexisting beliefs while dismissing or undervaluing the contrary evidence. In sport science, where precision and evidence-based practices are critical aspects to o...

To win in competition, athletes are inevitably in a position to display certain risky behaviors. The current research examines risk-taking behavior (instrumental risk and stimulating risk) in combat sport athletes, according to gender and sports performances. Also, it aims to verify the role that competitive experience has on athletes’ risk-taking...

The influence of playing formations and team ranking on the physical performance of professional soccer players is an open question that needs to be explored. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of these factors on the physical exertion of Serie A soccer players. We analyzed match data from 375 players, categorizing teams based on the...

The aim of this research was to establish prevalence estimates for aphantasia, hypophantasia, typical imagery ability, and hyperphantasia in a large multi-national cohort. In Study 1, the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire was completed by 3,049 participants. Results indicated prevalence estimates of 1.2% for aphantasia, 3% for hypophantasia...

Self-efficacy (SE) refers to an individual's belief in their own ability to successfully execute specific tasks and produce desired outcomes. The focused SE on specific sports tasks has been shown to impact athletic performance by interacting with other self-evaluation processes, like self-efficacy beliefs in emotion-related regulation and effectiv...

The influence of playing formations and team ranking on the physical performance of professional soccer players is an open question that needs to be explored. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of these factors on the physical exertion of Serie A soccer players. We analyzed match data from 375 players, categorizing teams based on the...

(1) Background: Adolescents who are under the care of child and youth institutions are vulnerable due to factors that can include disruption to family structure or education and adverse experiences. They often experience poor or unstable support systems, leaving them at risk of delinquency. In this context, sports engagement may provide a stable st...

The Multi‐Action Plan (MAP) model presents an idiosyncratic framework for human performance. MAP research has categorised four Performance Types (PTs; T1–T4) using self‐paced activities. Specifically, T1–4 present four distinct mental states experienced by athletes during performance, differing, among other aspects, in the level of effort and perce...

Documento di consenso del Gruppo di Studio “Educazione Fisica & Pedagogia dello Sport” della SISMeS (Società Italiana delle Scienze Motorie e Sportive). Questo documento di consenso riporta la riflessione di un ampio gruppo di ricercatori italiani su contenuti, riferimenti culturali, prospettive e sfide dell’Educazione Fisica contemporanea. Si tra...

Athletes need to achieve their optimal level of arousal for peak performance. Visualization or mental rehearsal (i.e., Imagery) often helps to obtain an appropriate level of activation, which can be detected by monitoring Skin Conductance Level (SCL). However, different types of imagery could elicit different amount of physiological arousal. Theref...

Aims The aims of this study were to verify if a 5-week cognitive-motor training (CMT) using FitlightsTM induced changes in young adult judo athletes compared to a non-intervention group. Specifically, it was verified if CMT influenced executive functions (EFs), physical fitness and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. Additionally, athl...

Evidence links an athlete’s focus of attention to enhancing strength performance. However, additional research is needed to investigate the applicability of studies beyond the tasks and population currently examined. Therefore, we aimed to systematically review studies concerning attentional focus effects on strength characteristics on lower-limb t...

Yoga Nidra (YN) naturally stimulates a hypnagogic state wherein an individual is physiologically asleep yet maintains a certain awareness to follow a guide's instructions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of this aware sleep state on recovery-stress balance in two elite karate athletes adopting an idiosyncratic and multimodal ap...

A novel multimodal experimental setup and dyadic study protocol were designed to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of joint action through the synchronous acquisition of EEG, ECG, EMG, respiration and kinematic data from two individuals engaged in ecologic and naturalistic cooperative and competitive joint actions involving face-to-f...

Aggressiveness and unethical behaviors are an important problem in sports today. Understanding how to properly measure and manage an athlete's aggressive tendency is a crucial lesson to be learned within the rulesets of a sporting environment. This study aims at validating the Italian version of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (CAAS)...

Investment in outdoor parks is proposed as a promising large-scale strategy to promote physical activity (PA). This study aimed to systematically review the impact of park renovations or installing new ones in increasing PA. Searches were conducted using predefined terms in three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) in March 2022. Studies...

Purpose: Football is a problem-solving sport1 involving intermittent short high-intensity actions followed by short recovery phases2. This study aimed at using an ecological approach to evaluate which type of training structure supports technical-tactical efficacy in the context of high-intensity demands in women's football. Methods: Eight athlet...

Archives of Budo

In sports, athletes might train or compete with some degree of mental fatigue that has an impact on performance. The present study investigated the effect of strategic motivational self-talk on endurance performance in mentally fatigued individuals. Twelve healthy men performed three cycling endurance tests at 80% peak power output until exhaustion...

Imagery is a well-known technique in mental training which improves performance efficiency and influences physiological arousal. One of the biomarkers indicating the amount of physiological arousal is skin conductance level (SCL). The aim of our study is to understand how individual differences in personality (e.g. neuroticism), general imagery and...

Ambiguous silhouettes representing human individuals which perform unimanual actions are interpreted more often as right-handed. Such a preference might reflect a perceptual frequency effect, due to the fact that most social interactions occur with right-handers. As a consequence, observers would preferentially attend to the region in which others’...

Cognitive-motor training could be used to improve open-skill sport performances, increasing cognitive demands to stimulate executive function (EF) development. Nevertheless, a distributed training proposal for the improvement of EFs is increasingly difficult to combine with seasonal sport commitments. This study aimed to investigate whether a masse...

Perceived stress in Italian coaches and sport mental health were investigated during the rebooting of sport activities following the first COVID-19 lockdown period. A sample of 237 coaches from various sports were asked to answer the Italian version of the Perceived Stress Scale and the Sport Mental Health Continuum, together with reporting of demo...

In sports, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected variables such as training, recovery or athletes’ sleep quality, uncertainty about the future generating distress and anxiety in athletes. There are two cognitive purpose of the current study: knowledge about the subjectively experienced stress in martial arts athletes from selected Europe Uni...

The Multi-Action Plan (MAP) presents as an action-focused, sport-specific, mixed methods intervention model. MAP research characterized four Performance Types (PTs). Each PT operates on an affective, cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological level—across performance contexts. In this narrative review, we present a synthesis of our current unde...

Stimulus identification and action outcome understanding for a rapid and accurate response selection, play a fundamental role in racquet sports. Here, we investigated the neurodynamics of visual anticipation in tennis manipulating the postural and kinematic information associated with the body of opponents by means of a spatial occlusion protocol....

The mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme is gaining increasing attention in sport and physical activity domains. This programme comprises three meditation practices: mindful yoga, body scan, and sitting meditation. In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of a dynamic (mindful yoga) strategy and a static (a combination of body...

The aim of the present study was to ascertain the mediating role of dispositional mindfulness on the relationship between athletes’ personality traits and functional/dysfunctional psychobiosocial states associated with performance. Italian athletes (N = 221, 112 female, Mage = 29.29 ± 9.55) involved in individual (n = 124) or team sports (n = 97) c...

Music is made up of several features ( e.g ., melody and rhythm) and it accompanies our life in different daily activities. During the last years, there was a growing interest in research about the music-related effects in the exercise domain. Music stimuli could act as an ergogenic effect leading to improvements in health-related and physical fitn...

Since the end of 2019 and throughout 2020, the world has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sports world suddenly had to deal with a massive reorganization of events with important implications for the physical and psychological preparation of athletes and coaches. The purpose of this study was to explore how these changes impacted coach...

The oculomotor system plays an important role in the development of migraines. This is an observational study that aims to investigate the rehabilitative efficacy of muscle energy therapy (MET) in reducing migraine symptoms. MET was based on post-isometric relaxation and reciprocal inhibition, targeting the extraocular muscles. Patients diagnosed w...

Since the end of 2019 and throughout 2020 the world has been devastated by the SARS COVID-19 pandemic. The sport world suddenly had to deal with a massive reorganization of events with important implications on the physical and psychological preparation of athletes and coaches. The purpose of this study was to explore how these changes impacted coa...

Achieve the mindset of a superior athlete with Sport Psychology Essentials! This book is packed with research-based strategies for developing the mental skills necessary to reach your sport performance goals. Coeditor Dave Collins, PhD, is an expert sport psychology practitioner who has been a consultant to more than 80 world-class athletes or Olym...

In a new era for digital health, dry electrodes for biopotential measurement enable the monitoring of essential vital functions outside of specialized healthcare centers. In this paper, a new type of nanostructured titanium-based thin film is proposed, revealing improved biopotential sensing performance and overcoming several of the limitations of...

PurposeTo compare depression and anxiety between elite volleyball players (VP) and amateur athletes (AA).Methods Depression and anxiety levels were assessed in 31 elite VP and 26 AA. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire was administered to assess physical activity level (PAL). Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and State-Trait Anxie...

The psychological consequences of the lockdown in the sport context have been well studied. However, few studies investigated athletes’ perceived stress during the rebooting in sport training and competitions; moreover, no investigations examined the relationship between perceived stress and interoceptive awareness. To mind this gap and support the...

Purpose. To identify motivational determinants explaining Physical Education (PE) teachers’ behaviors promoting students’ physical activity (PA), amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Method. 931 Italian and French teachers completed a questionnaire assessing motivational determinants (self-determined motivation, self-efficacy, perceived ease and usefulne...

This chapter examines the state of the art on the psychophysiological mechanisms underpinning mind-body interaction in sport, highlighting the unknown on the brain-heart relationship by means of five major questions. Specifically, the answer to the first methodological question provides basic information on the measures used in sport psychophysiolo...

This book brings to light the most pressing questions that must be addressed to advance the field. The book, which contains 25 chapters organized into three categories (Performance and Learning, Health and Well-Being, and Cultural and Professional Issues), includes contributions from leading experts in the field. Each chapter starts with a brief su...

The effects of mindfulness-based interventions on performance have recently been investigated, with several studies assessing changes in brain activity. The aim of the current systematic review was to identify the neural correlates of mindfulness practice that enhance performance. We completed searches on Scopus, PubMed, EBSCO, and Web of Science i...

This study aimed to evaluate whether primary school classroom teachers reported changes in physical education teaching self-efficacy (SE-PE) and work engagement (WE) during the first COVID-19 wave. A total of 622 classroom teachers filled in an online questionnaire on SE-PE and WE, referring to before and during the lockdown, and on perceived digit...

This study aimed to evaluate whether primary school classroom teachers reported changes in physical education teaching self-efficacy (SE-PE) and work engagement (WE) during the first COVID-19 wave. Six-hundred-twenty-two classroom teachers filled in an online questionnaire on SE-PE and WE, referring to before and during the lockdown, and on perceiv...

Several studies have highlighted the importance of executive functions (EFs) in physical activities and sports contexts. However, most EFs assessments have been conducted with individuals at rest. The present study aimed to investigate whether EFs performance at rest predicts EFs performance while exercising. Sixty healthy males participated in thr...

Background The Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport-36) is a self-report measure intended to monitor the recovery-stress balance in athletes. A validated Italian version of this instrument was not available so far. Objective The aim of this study was to provide an initial validation in Italian language of the RESTQ-Sport-36. Me...

We tested the effects of Hatha Yoga and specific balance exercises on balance function and fear of falling in older adults living in nursing homes. Twenty-six older adults underwent either Hatha Yoga or simple balance exercises practice. Before, during, and after completing the two programmes, the performance-oriented mobility assessment tool and t...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the cortical correlates of imagery depending on instructional modality (guided vs. self-produced) using various sports-related scripts. According to the expert-performance approach, we took an idiosyncratic perspective analyzing the mental imagery of an experienced two-time Olympic athlete to verify w...

The purpose of this study was to validate the Volition in Exercise Questionnaire in Italian language (VEQ-I). The translation and cultural adaptation of the VEQ-I was conducted using the forward-backward translation method. VEQ-I eighteen items correspond to the six-factors structure of the original version. The construct validity was verified by t...

The purpose of this study was to validate the Volition in Exercise Questionnaire in Italian language (VEQ-I). The translation and cultural adaptation of the VEQ-I was conducted using the forward-backward translation method. VEQ-I eighteen items correspond to the six-factors structure of the original version. The construct validity was verified by t...

All around the world in March, due to COVID-19, competitive sport calendars were suddenly canceled, jeopardizing the training programs of athletes. Moreover, in Italy, the government banned all non-essential travel across the entire country from the beginning of March. Consequently, Italian cyclists were banned from leaving their homes and therefor...

Background Imagery and empathy are both important resources for athletes’ performance. Although the imagery is frequently used in sport psychology, its relationship with dispositional empathy remains largely unexplored. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the associations between multidimensionally defined empathy and the ability to us...

To promote students’ physical activity (PA) during the COVID-19 lockdown, Physical Education (PE) teachers invested an unprecedented effort. This study identifies motivational determinants in changes in PE teachers’ behaviors promoting PA. 931 Italian and French teachers’ motivational determinants and behaviors promoting PA were measured, regarding...

The recent global outspread of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the lives of people across multiple countries including athletes, coaches, and supporting staff. Along with everybody else, coaches found themselves constrained to an at-home self-isolation, which limited their ability to normally engage with their profession and to interact with t...

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced physical activity (PA) behaviors of many people. Physical education (PE) is considered one of the privileged instruments to promote youths’ PA. We aimed to investigate the effects of lockdown on PE teachers’ behaviors promoting their students’ out-of-school PA and differences between three European coun...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the sporting field, with athletes constrained in home isolation without the possibility to train and compete in their usual environments. This situation has been investigated within the theoretical frameworks of athletic identity and cognitive emotion regulation.Objectives The objectives of our investiga...

Introduction The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected the economy, daily life, and mental/physical health. The latter includes the use of electroencephalography (EEG) in clinical practice and research. We report a survey of the impact of COVID-19 on the use of clinical EEG in practice and research in several countries, and the recommendations of a...

L'obiettivo in questo momento è accettare l'incertezza e la mancanza di una prospettiva chiara. Molti lavoratori sono dovuti passare allo smart working, così come gli atleti sono dovuti passare allo "smart training". Continua a farlo in modo efficace, con costanza e disciplina. Rispetta ed accetta i divieti imposti dalle autorità; non cercare scorc...

TUTTOBICI MAGGIO • 5 / 2020 69 considerazione la peculiarità del nostro sport e dia la pos-sibilità ai nostri atleti di ri-prendere il loro lavoro inse-rendoli nel prossimo DPCM. Ovviamente non dimenti-chiamo il dramma di vite umane che ogni giorno que-sto virus ci sta portando via, lasciando nella sofferenza tantissime famiglie. Sa rebbe inappropr...

Objectives To culturally adapt the Attention Questionnaire of Rehabilitated Athletes Returning to Competition (AQ-RARC) in the Italian language. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Italian athletes. Participants We recruited 324 athletes (215 men, 109 women) divided in two samples: 101 injured athletes returning to their first competition foll...

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of an instructional and a motivational self-talk intervention on swimming endurance performance in amateur triathletes. To this purpose, we designed a parallel two groups, randomised, longitudinal (pre- and post-test) study. During 12 days in all exercise-training sessions, the motivational self-talk...

Background Core affect is defined as the most general affective construct consciously accessible that is experienced constantly. It can be experienced as free-floating (mood) or related to prototypical emotional episodes. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of pleasant and unpleasant core affect on cyclo-ergometer endurance performan...

The current case study reports an intervention with a young volleyball athlete who was diagnosed with cancer during his early sporting career. The athlete requested both performance-enhancement support and psychotherapeutic intervention (the latter during his illness) from his sport psychologist. The article explores the transition from sport psych...

Background: Inactivity is a major factor contributing to adverse health in people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). While it is generally agreed that physical activity (PA)/sport-based interventions promote cognitive and social development in the general population, little is known about their specific benefits in adults with ID. The aims of t...

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally validate in the Italian language the I-PRRS and the SCI. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Injured Italian athletes. Participants: We recruited male (n = 73) and female (n = 27) athletes who returned to practice after having completed the rehabilitation. Main outcome measur...

Poor functional movement is a risk factor for injuries in soccer players. Players with dysfunctional movement patterns, measured by the Functional Movement Screen (FMSTM), are more likely to suffer an injury compared than those who have higher scores on the FMSTM. The purpose of our study was to assess the effectiveness of 8-weeks of functional mov...

Novel state-of-the-art amplifier and cap systems enable Electroencephalography (EEG) recording outside of stationary lab systems during physical exercise and body motion. However, extensive preparation time, cleaning, and limited long-term stability of conventional gel-based electrode systems pose significant limitations in out-of-the-lab condition...