Cognitive neuroscience in alpine skiing : introducing computational sports medicine for performance optimization

Boraxbekk, Carl-Johan (author), Supej, Matej (author), Holmberg, Hans-Christer (author)

While sport psychology has long emphasized mental and cognitive aspects of performance, sports medicine has traditionally focused on musculoskeletal and physiological aspects, largely overlooking the brain's central role in athletic performance. This narrative review aims to bridge this gap by introducing Computational Sports Medicine, a novel framework that integrates cognitive neuroscience with established physiological and biomechanical measures. Using alpine skiing as a primary example, this review examines the critical role of working memory updating in dynamic environments, discusses how neural processes enable adaptation, and proposes Computational Sports Medicine as a unifying predictive framework. This approach moves beyond descriptive analysis to provide objective, quantifiable metrics, testable models, and the ability to simulate “what-if” scenarios for proactive intervention. Practical implications for training include developing sport-specific cognitive tasks, individualizing variability in motor and cognitive learning, and leveraging technologies like virtual reality and wearable sensors. The review primarily targets elite and sub-elite athletes, for whom cognitive and environmental demands are most pronounced. This brain-inclusive framework offers a personalized approach to performance optimization, injury prevention, and safe return-to play decisions, positioning the brain as the central organ to the future of sports medicine.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sport, athlete development, brain, predicitive modeling, working memory updating, alpine skiing
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 10 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 36, iss. 1, art. e70188
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181352
• UDC: 796.926
• ISSN on article: 1600-0838
• DOI: 10.1111/sms.70188
• COBISS.SI-ID: 266871555
• Publication date in RUL: 02.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports
• Shortened title: Scand. j. med. sci. sports
• Publisher: Blackwell
• ISSN: 1600-0838
• COBISS.SI-ID: 517824025

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šport, alpsko smučanje, razvoj športnika, možgani, napovedano modeliranje, posodabljanje delovnega spomina