Mind games: How your brain works

during a game
You use all of your brain when playing performance psychologist Tom Bates
explains how

1 Occipital lobe

This vision-dominated area of the cerebrum helps you monitor your surroundings
and respond. Its relevant to spatial awareness, says Bates. A lot of your speed
of thought, decision-making and reaction starts from here. They are all the
psycho-motor cognitive elements required to perform, such as monitoring your
man, pulling off shoulders and responding to a team-mate.

2 Limbic system

This regulates your emotional reactions. Bates explains: Its where the red mist
can descend when youre playing. If you get provoked if youre shown a red
card, for example you can experience something called an amygdala hijack.
You become emotional, the frontal area of the brain becomes secondary, and
rational thinking goes out the window. Naughty limbic system.

3 Frontal lobe

Responsible for conscious thought, problem-solving and behaviour, this is your

on-pitch computer for processing tactics, ball-striking and runs. The brain is
complex and doesnt act independently, says Bates, but the frontal lobe
contains the pre-frontal cortex, which plans movement, and the pre-motor cortex,
which helps to organise movement patterns and sequences.

4 Dorsal and ventral streams

When you learn to play, you use a mental pathway called the dorsal stream. Once
youve mastered it, it becomes second nature the ventral stream. Skills
become non-thinking, instinctive, says Bates. However, neuroscientists believe
that if youre under pressure in a big game, anxiety can make you revert to the
dorsal stream and overthink what youre doing.
4 Cerebellum

Also known as the little brain, this part of your bonce doesnt initiate movement
but does fine-tune the information it is receiving about your motor control, thus
playing a vital role in posture, balance and co-ordination. When you decide to
move, messages travel from the cerebellum at the back of the brain into your
central nervous system, explains Bates.

5 Temporal lobe

Got a team-mate who refuses to pass, even when youre in acres of space? Who
refuses to listen to the gaffer and plays entirely for themselves? Maybe theyve
had a knock to the temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for hearing,
language and memory. This becomes active when youre taking in tactical advice
from the sidelines or responding to a call, says Bates.