Impact of Mental Imagery and tDCS on Emotion Regulation and Balance in Adolescent Athletes

Developing psychological and motor skills in adolescent athletes, especially in martial arts, plays a key role in improving performance and reducing the risk of injury. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a combined mental imagery and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), protocol on emotion control and dynamic balance in adolescent karate athletes. This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pre-test and post-test design including two groups (experimental and sham) and 24 adolescent athletes. The training protocol consisted of 8 sessions, for 4 weeks, 2 sessions of 20 minutes each week. To assess emotion control, the Roger and Nashover (1987) questionnaire was used, which measures four components including emotion inhibition, aggression inhibition, rumination, and benign inhibition. The Y test was also used to measure dynamic balance. The results of the analysis of covariance showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the sham group in both variables of emotion control (F = 6.415, P = 0.001, η² = 0.228), and dynamic balance (F = 6.518, P = 0.003, η² = 0.358). These results indicate that the combination of mental imagery with brain stimulation can significantly improve the emotion control and dynamic balance of adolescent athletes and can be used as an effective tool in psychological and physical preparation for national, international, and Youth Olympic competitions. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that adolescent coaches and sports psychologists use the combined protocol of mental imagery and brain stimulation in their training programs to improve balance and emotion control.