Psychological testing may predict success in soccer

Public release date: 5-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katarina Sternudd
katarina.sternudd@ki.se
46-852-483-895
Karolinska Institutet

Measuring what are known as executive functions, which reflect the cognitive ability to deal with sudden problems, may make it possible to predict how good an elite soccer player will become in the future. This has been shown by a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Scientists believe for the first time that they have found the scientific key to what has previously been described as 'game intelligence' in successful soccer players.

It has long been known that physical ability and ball sense are not enough to become really good at soccer (European football). A third vital component has often been mentioned: game intelligence, which is the ability to 'read' the play, to be always in the right place at the right time, and steal goals. Many people have regarded game intelligence to be almost a magical ability, something that is impossible to measure.

The scientists at Karolinska Institutet, however, claim that game intelligence is hardly mystical, and that it can be understood from a scientific perspective. It is, rather, an example of something that cognitive scientists call executive functions, which encompass the ability to be immediately creative, to be able to see new solutions to problems, to change tactics rapidly and to revise previous behaviour that has proved not to work.

"Our brains have specific systems that process information in just this manner, and we have validated methods within cognitive research to measure how well the executive functions work in an individual," says Dr Predrag Petrovic, who has led the research at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience of Karolinska Institutet.

Predrag Petrovic and his colleagues report in one study, to be published in the on-line scientific journal PLoS ONE, tests of certain executive functions in soccer players in Allsvenskan (the highest Swedish league) and in Division 1 (the league under Allsvenskan), a total of 57 elite soccer players. The scientists found that soccer players in both groups performed much better in tests of executive functions than the general population. And they found that players in Allsvenskan achieved much better results in these tests than players in Division 1.

The study then compared the test results with the performance of the players on the pitch. The scientists followed several of the soccer players for some years and recorded the number of goals and the number of assists each player made. In this way, each player was awarded points related to his or hers performance on the pitch. A clear correlation appeared between the results of the tests of executive functions and the number of points obtained on the football pitch (when corrected for such factors as a player's position and age).

It was thus shown that the best players had also performed best on the tests of executive functions. These results are unique, since they are based on scientifically standardised tests. Previously, researchers have used either specific tests from which it has not been possible to generalise the results, or studied specifically how heading the ball can cause cognitive abilities to deteriorate.

"We can imagine a situation in which cognitive tests of this type become a tool to develop new, successful soccer players. We need to study whether it is also possible to improve the executive functions through training, such that the improvement is expressed on the pitch. But there is probably a hereditary component, and a component that can be developed by training," says Torbjrn Vestberg, psychologist and a member of the research group that carried out the study.

###

The publication: "Executive functions predict the success of top-soccer players", Torbjrn Vestberg, Roland Gustafson, Liselotte Maurex, Martin Ingvar & Predrag Petrovic, PLoS ONE open access, 4 April 2012. Website: http://www.plosone.org/

For more information, please contact:

Predrag Petrovic, MD, PhD
Mobile: +46 73 510 1211
E-mail: predrag.petrovic@ki.se

Torbjrn Vestberg, Psychologist
Mobile in Sweden: +46 73 514 0870 (until 8 April 2012)
Telephone in China: +86 151 0160 4611 (after 9 April 2012)
E-mail: psychologist@live.se

Contact the KI Press Office and download images: http://ki.se/pressroom

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. It accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country's broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 5-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katarina Sternudd
katarina.sternudd@ki.se
46-852-483-895
Karolinska Institutet

Measuring what are known as executive functions, which reflect the cognitive ability to deal with sudden problems, may make it possible to predict how good an elite soccer player will become in the future. This has been shown by a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Scientists believe for the first time that they have found the scientific key to what has previously been described as 'game intelligence' in successful soccer players.

It has long been known that physical ability and ball sense are not enough to become really good at soccer (European football). A third vital component has often been mentioned: game intelligence, which is the ability to 'read' the play, to be always in the right place at the right time, and steal goals. Many people have regarded game intelligence to be almost a magical ability, something that is impossible to measure.

The scientists at Karolinska Institutet, however, claim that game intelligence is hardly mystical, and that it can be understood from a scientific perspective. It is, rather, an example of something that cognitive scientists call executive functions, which encompass the ability to be immediately creative, to be able to see new solutions to problems, to change tactics rapidly and to revise previous behaviour that has proved not to work.

"Our brains have specific systems that process information in just this manner, and we have validated methods within cognitive research to measure how well the executive functions work in an individual," says Dr Predrag Petrovic, who has led the research at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience of Karolinska Institutet.

Predrag Petrovic and his colleagues report in one study, to be published in the on-line scientific journal PLoS ONE, tests of certain executive functions in soccer players in Allsvenskan (the highest Swedish league) and in Division 1 (the league under Allsvenskan), a total of 57 elite soccer players. The scientists found that soccer players in both groups performed much better in tests of executive functions than the general population. And they found that players in Allsvenskan achieved much better results in these tests than players in Division 1.

The study then compared the test results with the performance of the players on the pitch. The scientists followed several of the soccer players for some years and recorded the number of goals and the number of assists each player made. In this way, each player was awarded points related to his or hers performance on the pitch. A clear correlation appeared between the results of the tests of executive functions and the number of points obtained on the football pitch (when corrected for such factors as a player's position and age).

It was thus shown that the best players had also performed best on the tests of executive functions. These results are unique, since they are based on scientifically standardised tests. Previously, researchers have used either specific tests from which it has not been possible to generalise the results, or studied specifically how heading the ball can cause cognitive abilities to deteriorate.

"We can imagine a situation in which cognitive tests of this type become a tool to develop new, successful soccer players. We need to study whether it is also possible to improve the executive functions through training, such that the improvement is expressed on the pitch. But there is probably a hereditary component, and a component that can be developed by training," says Torbjrn Vestberg, psychologist and a member of the research group that carried out the study.

###

The publication: "Executive functions predict the success of top-soccer players", Torbjrn Vestberg, Roland Gustafson, Liselotte Maurex, Martin Ingvar & Predrag Petrovic, PLoS ONE open access, 4 April 2012. Website: http://www.plosone.org/

For more information, please contact:

Predrag Petrovic, MD, PhD
Mobile: +46 73 510 1211
E-mail: predrag.petrovic@ki.se

Torbjrn Vestberg, Psychologist
Mobile in Sweden: +46 73 514 0870 (until 8 April 2012)
Telephone in China: +86 151 0160 4611 (after 9 April 2012)
E-mail: psychologist@live.se

Contact the KI Press Office and download images: http://ki.se/pressroom

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. It accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country's broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Are bees threatened by insecticide use? New studies say yes. (+video)

Scientists found that one class of insecticides may harm both bumblebees and honeybees in two recent studies. Bees' important role as pollinators may be threatened.?

Scientists have discovered ways in which even low doses of widely used pesticides can harm bumblebees and honeybees, interfering with their homing abilities and making them lose their way.

Skip to next paragraph In this video, Dr. Jan Knodel, NDSU Extension Entomologist, discusses how to protect honeybees and native pollinators from pesticide poisoning. Pollinators are a vital part of our agricultural food production and should be protected from pesticide poisoning.
Special thanks to beekeeper Todd Weinmann.

In two studies published in the journal Science on Thursday, British and French researchers looked at bees and neonicotinoid insecticides - a class introduced in the 1990s now among the most commonly used crop pesticides in the world.

In recent years, bee populations have been dropping rapidly, partly due to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists also fear pesticides are destroying bee populations, but it is not clear how they are causing damage.

Dave Goulson of Stirling University in Scotland, who led the British study, said some bumblebee species have declined hugely.

"In North America, several bumblebee species which used to be common have more or less disappeared from the entire continent," while in Britain, three species have become extinct, he said in a statement.

The threat to bee populations also extends to Asia, South America and the Middle East, experts say.

Bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, including many fruit and vegetable crops. A 2011 United Nations report estimated that bees and other pollinators such as butterflies, beetles or birds do work worth 153 billion euros ($203 bln) a year to the human economy.

In the first of the Science studies, a University of Stirling team exposed developing colonies of bumblebees to low levels of a neonicotinoid called imidacloprid, and then placed the colonies in an enclosed field site where the bees could fly around collecting pollen under natural conditions for six weeks.

At the beginning and end of the experiment, the researchers weighed each of the bumblebee nests - which included the bees, wax, honey, bee grubs and pollen - to see how much the colony had grown.

Compared to control colonies not exposed to imidacloprid, the researchers found the treated colonies gained less weight, suggesting less food was coming in.

The treated colonies were on average eight to 12 percent smaller than the control colonies at the end of the experiment, and also produced about 85 percent fewer queens - a finding that is key because queens produce the next generation of bees.

In the separate study, a team led by Mickael Henry of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Avignon tagged free-ranging honeybees with tiny radio-frequency identification microchips glued to each bee's back. This allowed them to track the bees as they came and went from hives.

The researchers gave some of the bees a low dose of the neonicotinoid pesticide thiamethoxam which they knew would not kill them and compared them to a control group of bees that was not exposed to the pesticide.

The treated bees were about two to three times more likely to die while away from their nests, and the researchers said this was probably because the pesticide interfered with the bees' homing systems, so they couldn't find their way home.

Henry said the findings raised important issues about pesticide authorisation procedures.

"So far, they (the procedures) mostly require manufacturers to ensure that doses encountered on the field do not kill bees, but they basically ignore the consequences of doses that do not kill them but may cause behavioral difficulties," he said in a statement. ($1 = 0.7525 euros) (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

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Shawn Parr: What Is At The Intersection Where Innovation And ...

There has been a lot of talk about ?intersections? lately?intersections of business and art, intersections of marketing and nature, intersections of technology and health, and so on.

I recently became involved in a conversation about intersections through the new annual event, The Intersection Event, which examines the intersection between business innovation and social change. This year?s event was set inside of Pixar Animation Studios, and next year?s is slated to be held in January at the Googleplex. But more interesting than their backdrops, which are arguably among the most creative in the country, is the question they?re trying to answer: ?Can business innovation and social change effectively create a symbiotic relationship??

I recently had the opportunity to chat with the founder, Randy Haykin, to learn more about this interesting intersection.

How do you define the intersection of innovation and social change?

A great question because this idea of holding an event called ?Intersection? seems to be hitting a chord with a lot of people?they recognize that business innovation and social change are related?but how? As a serial entrepreneur, teacher, and mentor to startups over the years, I?ve seen hundreds of examples of business innovation?in both large and small startups. In the past, much of this innovation has been targeted to making better, faster, cheaper products and services. More products, more companies, more investments equals more money. Unfortunately, in the past, innovation has not been focused on a better lifestyle, improved standard of living, healthy environment, or a safe world for billions of people who live below the poverty line around the world.

As a professor working with many of tomorrow?s future leaders at UC Berkeley and University of Cambridge, I?ve noticed a change in the past five years. Many students no longer just ask, ?How can I make more money?? Increasingly, they are beginning to ask, ?How can I make the greatest impact??

Meanwhile, environmental concerns and poverty have caused many global corporations to focus on ?CSR? (Corporate Social Responsibility) and take responsibility for things beyond profits, such as community, environment, and education. That means the focus both at a university and a corporate level has shifted. We will see a swing in global consciousness as a new set of social entrepreneurs use innovation to effect positive social change. The swing in consciousness is the intersection between innovation and social change. The new consciousness says, ?How can I use new innovative models, products, practices, and thinking to impact those issues that are our greatest enemies as human beings??

With all the changes going on, it is easy to observe examples of the intersection of innovation and social change in all walks of life. Examples of this are already in play: Innovations in social media affect political balance (think Egypt, Syria, and the IAVA); innovations in technology affect biotech, agriculture, food and oil production (think Water.org or Solayzme); innovations in business models affect the ways that goods and services from Africa, India, and Latin America can be brought to the rest of the world (think Kiva.org or World of Good), and there is so much more that it?s dizzying to keep up with it each week.

How do you think social innovation will influence the future?

We are already seeing signs of this. The first wave was the outsourcing of labor among countries in the 1980s. In the 1990s we began to see that the world was interconnected financially and via the Internet. We?ve transformed in the first decade of this century to a truly global economy, one in which companies do create and sell their products on a global scale and, unfortunately, one in which a ?sneeze? in Greece affects the entire global financial scene. Today we are seeing that the effects of the Internet, communication technologies, and social media are transforming the way teams, companies, countries, and continents relate to one another. We are living in a time where there is the potential for rapid social change unlike any other in history.

Against this backdrop, innovation has the potential to shape the future of most of the major social issues of our time.Take global health, for example. Using innovative technologies and techniques, the Gates Foundation has been able to nearly eradicate polio by focusing on a multi-national and holistic solutions. The same is true in education. The old collegiate system of the past is about to crumble in the next 10 years and university ?brands? are likely to give way to new, nimble ways of educating people?it?s the experience that the university provides which will be valued, rather than the diploma or brand. The same will be the case for poverty issues, environmental concerns, and energy consumption.

How do you predict the ?Intersection Event? will shape the future of social innovation?

The ?Intersection Event? is developed by The Gratitude Network as a means of bringing together innovative thinkers from a variety of fields who have an interest in making a difference. The Gratitude Network was designed to fund social entrepreneurs who have revolutionary ideas that can have local, regional, or national impact on social issues.

The Intersection is a unique way to bring together thought leaders from a variety of fields and draw out the intersections in thinking that are most likely to lead to new discoveries, ways of thinking, relationships, and connections. We?ve designed this inaugural event to cover a variety of topics from personal innovation to team creativity to entrepreneurial innovation and then look at ways in which each of these areas impacts social change.
What is the most important lesson you?ve learned?

I used to think ?creativity? meant Picasso. What I now know is that some of the most creative energy on the planet is bundled up in the minds of our founders, entrepreneurs, and young leaders. Entrepreneurial spirit has positively affected the U.S. economy dramatically in the past 40 years, and I think it will drive economies in the future. Those parts of the world that apply new rules of how to intersect with these entrepreneurs, by providing the best environment for them to operate out of, will be the long-term growth economies of the 21st century.

What are the most important benchmarks for social innovation?

In the last few centuries, major technological inventions?the birth of automotive and aviation industries, the invention of the telephone, the discovery of DNA?have played a role in social change. But these inventions were not driven by a desire for social change. They produced a social outcome as a by-product. They were mostly inspired by scientific achievement, discovery, or the profit motive.

We can look at milestones in terms of technology, applications of this technology, or ways in which the applications were enabled by a system of funding. The system of funding intrigues me as a former VC the most.

The old method of appropriation was public funding. But in the U.S. today, it is clear that this is no longer working. We cannot solve our present social issues in this country or elsewhere around the world through the use of public funds or government agencies. Bipartisan issues now bog down any progress we can conceive of.

To me, new forms of innovative funding are the things that drive. Following is a list of financial innovations we?ve seen in the past 40 years in the area of social?change:

1976: Grameen Bank & Opportunity International founded
1981: Ashoka founded by Bill Drayton
2001: Acumen Fund founded by Jacqueline Novogratz
2004: Facebook founded by Mark Zuckerberg
2005: Kiva.org founded by Matt Flannery & Jessica Jackley

What philosophy is at the heart of your organization?

That philosophy is this: Some of the greatest inventions the world has seen were developed incrementally as one person built on another?s ideas, sometimes transcending decades or even centuries between them. What makes for a real innovation is that someone takes a previous idea and juxtapositions it in new light, or with a new twist, or in a new context. That means finding the intersection between the original observation or thought and the new environment or situation. The most fertile areas for innovation?and the most new ideas?are likely to occur at the intersection of several great minds.

?

Shawn Parr is the Guvner & CEO of Bulldog Drummond, an innovation and design consultancy headquartered in San Diego whose clients and partners have included Starbucks, Diageo, Jack in the Box, Adidas, MTV, Nestle, Pinkberry, American Eagle Outfitters, IDEO, Virgin, Disney, Nike, Mattel, Heineken, Annie?s Homegrown, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson?s Research, CleanWell, The Honest Kitchen, and World Vision. Follow the conversation at @BULLDOGDRUMMOND.

[Image: Flickr user Yang and Yun]

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Samsung expects to double Q1 profit versus last year, sends itself a love note

Sammy has issued guidance for its financial performance between January and March 2012, ahead of a fuller earnings report due later this month. In contrast to HTC's latest news, the Korean giant looks rosy enough -- it's predicting an operating profit of 5.8 trillion won ($5 billion), which is almost double the quarterly profit from last year. Overall revenues continued to grow steadily too, rising nearly 22 percent to 45 trillion won ($40 billion). We'll need to wait for more detail to see where the growth is coming from, but it'd be cheesily nice to think our affection for the Galaxy Note had something to do with it.

Continue reading Samsung expects to double Q1 profit versus last year, sends itself a love note

Samsung expects to double Q1 profit versus last year, sends itself a love note originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Home Improvement-4500 House Plans | ESA Ecologist Profiles

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Israeli, Palestinian negotiators 'meet in Jordan'

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A Battle Royale online over origin of 'The Hunger Games'

Some claim that 'The Hunger Games' is a rip-off of the 1999 Japanese series 'Battle Royale.' But the storyline of a death match being employed by authoritarian rulers dates back to the Roman Empire.

It's not unusual that "The Hunger Games" movie's arrival in theaters has been accompanied by feverish anticipation on the Internet. The online world is easily and often set ablaze by enthusiastic fandom, and Susanne Collins' wildly popular series of novels about a dystopian future where teenagers fight to the death on television has sold millions of copies.

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But it's not just fandom that's fueling "The Hunger Games" online fire. It's also being fed by controversy: specifically, whether Ms. Collins' series is a "rip-off" of Japanese novel "Battle Royale."

Certainly, the debate online is energetic. A quick Google search of "hunger games battle royale" turns up half a million results with headlines like "Why the 'The Hunger Games's Snub of 'Battle Royale' Matters," "5 Reasons The Hunger Games Isn't Battle Royale," and "Who Would Win in a Fight?: Battle Royale vs. The Hunger Games." YouTubers debate the similarities and differences among clips and trailers of the originals.?

A description of Koushun Takami?s book, published in 1999, makes those similarities clear. In a near-future dystopia, a despotic government selects teenagers by lottery to participate in the titular competition, in which the youths are thrown into the wilderness with a variety of weapons in order to participate in a televised death match. There are also commercial similarities: Battle Royale, too, made a successful jump to the big screen in a 2000 cult-classic release directed by Kinji Fukasaku. (Quentin Tarantino called it his "favorite movie of the last 20 years.")

But proponents of "The Hunger Games" being its own work have plausible arguments too. They note that?"The Hunger Games" is at its heart a science-fiction story set long after a global war, whereas "Battle Royale" is more of a near-future, modern-world thriller. They also argue that "Games" is about broader revolutionary themes, while "Battle" is focused on simple, visceral survival. And of course, the violent, bloody "Battle" is not the young adult novel that "Games"?is.

Despite their fans' passion over the heritage of "Games," neither author appears interested in fueling the debate. Collins told The New York Times that she only learned of Battle Royale after she submitted her first book to her publisher. ?I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in. At that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it. He said: ?No, I don?t want that world in your head. Just continue with what you?re doing.? ?? And Takami told ABC News that he was amused by the debate, though he appreciated his fans' enthusiasm.

All in all, it seems to be another case of there being nothing new under the sun. After all, both novels and movies were predated by Stephen King's novella-turned-blockbuster "The Running Man," which was about ? surprise, surprise ? a reality-television death match run by a totalitarian government in a dystopian future. All three stories drew from books like George Orwell's "1984" and William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." And if one follows the trail back long enough, you eventually reach the Roman circuses, which were ? you guessed it ? real death matches employed by absolute rulers to keep the population in line.

And so long as their readers enjoy their stories, the authors are not concerned. "I think every novel has something to offer," says Takami. "If readers find value in either book, that?s all an author can ask for."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/Z-znlBAWQww/A-Battle-Royale-online-over-origin-of-The-Hunger-Games

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