Brain activity research opens doors for USQ Professor

USQ Professor Peter Terry has been invited to be part of the Irish team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics following his successful research with doctoral graduate Dr Paul Mahoney into trap shooting performance and brain activity.

Professor Terry has already accompanied the Irish team to several international events this season, following a successful study of Irish national team shooter Derek Burnett earlier in the year, which yielded significant results.

'Dr Paul Mahoney and I investigated Derek's pre-shot brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG),' Professor Terry said.

'EEG measures clinical activity via electrodes on several different parts of the brain.

'For this, Irish national team shooter Derek Burnett, who finished 7th in the Athens Olympics and has already qualified for Beijing 2008, travelled to USQ for two weeks in April during which time we tested him using EEG.'

Over the course of the two weeks, Professor Terry monitored Derek's pre-shot brain activity on the shooting range during several rounds of 25 targets, including both hits and misses.

'We monitored the small electrical charges from his brain in microvolts using EEG and noticed that there was a difference in brain activity between his best and worst shots,' he said.

'Then we trained his brain using neurofeedback, which rewards the activity associated with his best shots and inhibits the activity associated with his worst shots.'

The training had an immediate impact, after Derek returned his best results in the ten years he has been competing internationally.

'He won silver medals at both the Beretta Grand Prix in Italy and a World Cup event in Slovenia,' Professor Terry said.

'Derek has publicly acknowledged the contribution of our research to his competition success.'

Following the success of the research and Derek's career best performances, Professor Terry was contacted by the Head of the Irish Olympic Team.

'Partly as a result of how Derek has gone this season I was pre-selected as part of the Ireland team to the Beijing Olympics.'

Although the research requires further validation, there is the potential for the study to be extended to other sports.

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628