Editorial: Insights and Reviews in Movement Science 2023

Guy Cheron^1*Nadia Dominici²Susannah L. Williamson³Matthew A. Stults-Kolehmainen⁴

• ¹Laboratory of Movement Biomechanics, Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics, Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
• ²Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• ³Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, United States
• ⁴Columbia University, New York, United States

activity has opened new avenues for exploration in performance enhancement, therapeutic interventions, and health promotion. Interestingly, the review of Yu et al., (2024) confirmed that a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to improve motor performance in healthy subjects and athletes. In their 2024 review, Schedler et al., (2024) provide an overview of recent advances in highresolution head mounted displays (HMDs) and their application in training balancerelated skills across the lifespan. The use of HMDs should therefore bring a new dimension beneficial to improving the subject's overall balance, particularly during the critical phases of maturation. In the same line of inquiry, Xue et al., (2025) addressed the question of how to leverage technology to enhance motor outcomes in children with cerebral palsy. Their systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that virtual reality motor games significantly improve both gross and fine motor skills. Integration of molecular genetic technologies, epidemiology, exercise physiology and biostatistics to investigate quantitative performance traits, such as muscle power output and movement recording with new motion capture is reviewed by Papadimitriou, (2024) implications in the biotech industry, with a focus on gene therapy to combat age-related muscle power decline, personalized medicine and will drive advancements in exercise program design. Zi & de Geus, (2025) re-analyzed the genetic aspect of the Stodden model about the potential confounding by familial environmental factors, which include household, neighborhood, parental rearing style characteristics. Collectively, these contributions advance our understanding of motor control mechanisms, from biomechanics to genetics, and highlight promising avenues for both athletic training and rehabilitation. Recent works have promulgated the idea of fine-tuning in exercise, physical activity and sport. The process implies incremental progress for motor development, athletic training programs, and scientific research through tweaking and slight adjustments.Nowhere is skill development more essential than the transitioning youth-to-adult athlete. The study by Zheng & van der Kamp, (2025) considered the strengths and limitations of the body-scaled approach often utilized in youth sports. It is highlighted that an action-scaled approach, emphatic on task specificity, helps better guide youth sport modifications while effectively developing young athletes to the next stage of their careers.Balance training is one skill in particular that is of great value to both individual athletes as well as teams. Chen et al., (2025) found that balance training when combined with multi-directional movement exercises improved greater change of direction ability amongst young table tennis players. In the same line, the review of Gao et al., (2025) focused on the instability resistance training effect on athletes' performance. This sort of training has been proved to be effective for dynamic balance abilities, core stability amongst a wide variety of strength, power, and even endurance athletes.The ability to monitor brain activity during athletic performance has improved significantly over the past several years. A systematic review of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) by Shen et al., (2024) showed that physical exercise induces positive adaptations in both the prefrontal and motor cortices through increased levels of oxygenated hemoglobin. Such changes in cortical hemodynamics were associated with enhanced inhibitory control and working memory. Another study by Yu et al., (2024) examined the effects of a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and found significant improvements in strength, endurance, and emotional state, with smaller but still notable effects on sport-specific tasks and cognitive performance.Implications for improved cognitive performance were also highlighted by a systematic review on eye-tracking technology (Kredel et al., 2023). While progress in this field has been uneven since the last update, one important advance is the use of automated gazecue allocations (GCA), particularly in mobile eye-tracking studies, which increases objectivity while reducing manual workload.Taken together, these findings reinforce the importance of fine-tuning, highlight promising avenues for future research, and suggest further applications aimed at enhancing athletic performance and excellence. Five papers (Segar, 2024;Carrera-Bastos et al., 2025;Jadhakhan et al., 2023;Yang et al., 2024;Si et al., 2024) were specifically related to psychosocial aspects of physical activity (PA) and exercise, and one could consider motivation to the predominant theme of these works. Tying these papers together into a single motivational model at first glance may seem unwieldy. However, conceptual and theoretical advances have made this feasible. Taking together, these studies propose that an immediate antecedent of movement is an urge or impulse to move or not move. They also include important fundamental aspects of motivation, such as active approach versus active withdrawal from physical activity and sedentary behaviors, as well as negative reinforcement and classic aspects of drive theory. In addition, there is a likely motivational null point where both approach and withdrawal are neutralized and wants/desires are minimized, a state similar to mindfulness, as described by Si et al., (2024). Potentially dozens of factors have interplay in these processes, but in terms of approach motivation, the paper from (Segar, 2024) suggests that promoting PA/exercise over the long-term could be accomplished by: 1) enhancing the affective response to PA, 2) challenging all-or-nothing decision making, and 3) giving oneself permission for self-care, such as structured exercise.Enhancing motivation for activity in healthy populations is quite different from minimizing pathological processes that inhibit movement. In the case of depression, withdrawal (or sometimes excessive activity) are common hallmarks of the disorder, the so-called psychomotor retardation or excitation. This disorder is potentially related to dysregulated inflammatory processes (Carrera-Bastos et al., 2025) which may be counteracted with a variety of different exercise interventions. Fear of movement (i.e., kinesiophobia), as explained by Jadhakhan et al., (2023), is an example of active withdrawal, dread, or aversion for movement, a state particularly activated by the experience or anticipation of pain. While it is still understood that most people suffer from too little movement, some individuals move too much in the sense that their movement tendencies interfere with other objectives in their lives. With ADHD, it also seems likely that there are excessive urges to move (Yang et al., 2024) and this should be studied more systematically in the future. Paralympic sport as Boccia also demonstrates that beyond its physical benefits, Boccia emphasizes social interaction, emotional regulation and empathy (Ferreira et al., 2025). These findings illustrate the complex interplay between psychological, biological, and social factors in sustaining healthy movement behaviors.