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To determine whether visuo-attentional and executive capacities measured by multiple object tracking and related cognitive tasks are associated with take-over performance in a highly automated driving simulation.

Participants completed a battery of cognitive assessments including 3D multiple object tracking (NeuroTracker), executive function measures, and additional visuo-attentional tasks. These measures were correlated with performance outcomes in a high-fidelity driving simulator requiring participants to take over control from automated driving under risk-relevant conditions.

Higher dynamic tracking performance and stronger executive functioning were associated with greater take-over success in the simulated automated driving scenarios. These findings suggest that perceptual-cognitive abilities measured by 3D-MOT paradigms relate to practical visuomotor tasks beyond sport contexts, including safety-critical driving behaviors.

To compare performance and muscle architecture changes in starters and nonstarters during a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I women's soccer season.

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28 females (av. 20 years old) were assessed on NeuroTracker baselines, vertical jump power, repeated line drills and reaction time at preseason, midseason, and postseason. Muscle architecture changes using ultrasonography were assessed at preseason and postseason.

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Both starters and non-starters showed similar status or improvements on all assessments across the season, except for line drills performance, which showed greater improvements for starters. NeuroTracker and reaction time performance improved regardless of playtime. Results of muscle architecture analysis indicated that practice training alone provide sufficient stimulus for improving muscle quality during the competitive season. Overall starters did not display significant benefits from competition over athletes who performed training only.

To investigate the relationship with NeuroTracker baselines and soccer player performance metrics across two professional seasons.

11 professional Greek soccer players from two major Super League football clubs completed a 6-min single NeuroTracker session baseline. Soccer-specific competition performance metrics were collected using the Wyscout analytics platform, including: team is winning/losing, actions with/without a yellow card, dribbles, through passes, forward passes, and assists.

Statistical analysis revealed NeuroTracker baseline score significantly correlated to actions when team is winning/losing, total actions without a yellow card, through passes, forward passes, and assists. The researchers suggest that such baselines could play a crucial and practical role in evaluating soccer players’ performance when under the demands of professional competition.

To investigate the effects of motor and perceptual dual-task NeuroTracker training over time, and in particular to see if performing prior NeuroTracker consolidation training significantly influences these effects.

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71 participants were assigned either just NeuroTracker training (iMOT), NeuroTracker with a decisionmaking task (Combi), NeuroTracker consolidation training then with a decision-making task (Consol), or an isolated decision-making task (iDM). The decision-making task involved a motor-response reaction to a simulated birdie with a real badminton racket. Performance was measured through NeuroTracker speed threshold, decision accuracy, and reaction time.

Firstly the results demonstrated that the dual-task component significantly affects NeuroTracker speed thresholds. Secondly that this effect is reduced with training over time. Thirdly that this effect is reduced further when consolidation training on just NeuroTracker is completed beforehand. Additionally, decision-making speed, reaction time and accuracy improved with dual-task training. Overall this study provides evidence that NeuroTracker consolidation training is an effective method for accelerating learning rates across multiple performance domains.

This paper covers foundational concepts of NeuroTracker’s relevance to training of cognitive capacities deemed critical in sports performance, particularly in dynamic team-sports. It also contains a study investigating the effects of attentional loads in learning paradigms, with the aim of understanding optimal load conditions for training perceptual-cognitive ability.

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4 elite professional sports teams trained their athletes on NeuroTracker (15-30 sessions) during their competition seasons. An English Premier Team club, a National Hockey League team, and a European Rugby team were all trained in the standard sitting down position to isolate any influence from attentional mechanisms involved in posture control. Another NHL team performed the training in standing position, involving basic balance demands on attention.

Taking the statistical average for learning progression on NeuroTracker, the three professional sports teams training in sitting position showed near identical progression, with rapid early learning slowing down towards longer term but continued learning. The standing sports team showed much lower NeuroTracker scores, but more importantly slower overall learning progression, with a large magnitude of difference to the other teams. The findings clearly demonstrate the link between balance control mechanisms and perceptual-cognitive demands solicited by NeuroTracker training. This demonstrates that cognitive training loads need to be sensitively optimized to attentional thresholds in order to generate effective short and longer term learning adaptations.

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To examine whether a visual–spatial attention training intervention using 3D multiple object tracking (3D-MOT) influences motor performance and subsystem measures relevant to occupational performance.

Three pre-test/post-test studies were conducted:

• Study 1: Healthy young adults (n = 19) completed 8 NeuroTracker sessions; outcomes included the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) and gait parameters.
• Study 2: Healthy young adults (n = 41) completed 10 sessions; outcomes included SEBT, Stroop performance, and dual-task gait assessment.
• Study 3: A 12-year-old child with dyslexia completed 10 sessions; outcomes included SEBT, Stroop, Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2), Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS), gait, and visual convergence.

In healthy adults, the intervention groups demonstrated greater improvements in balance performance (SEBT) compared to controls, along with within-group improvements in attentional measures (Stroop). Dual-task gait parameters showed measurable changes following training, though functional improvements were less clearly defined than balance outcomes.

In the single-subject case study, clinically meaningful improvements were observed in visual-perceptual skills, balance subtests, and selected attentional measures, with additional non-clinically significant changes in gait and convergence.

The findings suggest that training visual–spatial attention through 3D-MOT may influence balance and attentional subsystems that contribute to occupational performance, with preliminary evidence of broader functional effects.

This study measured the capacity of older participants to improve their tracking speed thresholds (NeuroTracker), to investigate if age related cognitive decline can be reversed with a training intervention known to be directly relevant to the effects of healthy aging.

20 healthy younger adults (mean age 24 years old) and 20 healthy older adults (mean age 67 years old) performed 15 NeuroTracker training sessions distributed over 5 weeks.

Both groups obtained benefit from training with a similar rate of progression. Though the older group started off at a significantly lower level than the younger group, they obtained speed thresholds that were similar to those of untrained younger adults by the end of the training program. Furthermore, towards the end of the training program the rate of learning appeared to have slowed for the younger group, yet the older group still showed a strong learning curve, suggesting greater improvements with continued training. In conclusion, although healthy older people show a significant age-related deficit in the NeuroTracker task, they respond strongly to training effects and demonstrate an ability to fully reverse age-related functional decline with a short intervention of NeuroTracker training.

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 investigate if NeuroTracker baselines can be used to differentiate athletic experience and class of sport.

101 female (36) and male (67) athletes at Universidad Playa Ancha (Spain) in soccer, basketball, volleyball, rugby, handball, swimming, athletics, table tennis and rowing, completed NeuroTracker baselines. These were all completed at noon, following intense workouts the day before. The sports were classified into open structure (e.g. soccer) and closed structure (e.g. swimming) groups, due to expected differences their cognitive demands.

Overall, statistical analysis showed that NeuroTracker baselines correlated significantly with sex, amount of athletic training, and class of sport. The researchers conclude that these results show that NeuroTracker provides an accessible measure of perceptual-cognitive function that relates significantly to athletic performance variables in university athletes.