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Dr Adam Bruton
Senior Lecturer in Sport and Performance Psychology

Heinz Wolff 271

Research area(s)

My research interests span the fields of sport psychology, experimental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

I adopt a multidisciplinary approach to understand interactions between neural, cognitive, psychological and behavioral factors associated with the following topics:

  • Simulating actions via motor imagery and/or action observation.
  • Performance and learning in individuals and teams.
  • Immersive technology use in high performance domains.

Research Interests

Simulating actions through action observation and/or motor imagery to:

  • Enhance learning of new motor skills / sequences
  • Improve performance under pressure
  • Increase task- and situation-specific confidence
  • Develop mental representations of action in the long-term memory
  • Understand joint actions and interactions across multiple persons

Understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning action simulation:

  • Using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess corticospinal responses to action simulation
  • Using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to probe the roles of different brain areas during action simulation

Testing immersive reality technologies as  alternative forms of perceptual-cognitive, and/or action training:

  • Investigating the efficacy of virtual- or augmented-reality for perceptual-cognitive, and/or action training
  • Utilizing virtual- or augmented-reality to test possible transfer of perceptual, cognitive or movement outcomes after action simulation training
  • Exploring the validity and reliability of immersive technologies as a training tool in high performance contexts

Research grants and projects

Grants

Virtually fall free: Delivering virtual reality-based action simulation training to improve balance and reduce fall risk in children with developmental coordination disorder
Funder: The Waterloo Foundation
Duration: May 2025 - September 2026

Children with DCD often have difficulty balancing and are more likely to trip or fall during everyday activities such as walking and running. AOMI training, a mental practice technique that involves a person watching a video demonstration of a movement whilst simultaneously imagining the physical feelings associated with the movement, has the potential to help these children improve their balance. Our research shows that AOMI training improves performance and learning of upper-limb tasks in children with DCD, and whole-body tasks in healthy adults. Recently, we showed that delivering AOMI training in VR (VR-AOMI training) enhances these benefits. This approach is promising in children with DCD as it is low-cost and combines enjoyable elements of VR gaming with targeted training methods to improve movement competence. However, the effectiveness of VR-AOMI training has not yet been tested in DCD populations. This project aims to address this gap by determining how children with DCD respond to VR-AOMI training designed to improve their balance. This will provide a scientific basis for the development of at-home balance training that could be recommended to improve balance and reduce fall risk for children with DCD.

Investigating the effects of prebiotic supplementation on gut permeability and inflammation, cardiometabolic health, and mood and well-being
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Duration: January 2025 - June 2025
Psychological Skill Use for Performance Enhancement and Refinement in YOUth (PSUPER YOU)
Funder: British Psychological Society, Research Working Groups Scheme
Duration: December 2020 - January 2023
The effects of hyperthermia on memory
Funder: Experimental Psychology Society, Small Grants Scheme
Duration: January 2019 - April 2023
An interdisciplinary investigation into return to play following a lower limb injury
Funder: Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS 2) PhD Award.
Duration: May 2018 - September 2022
Project GROW: Establishing and testing a new intergenerational falls prevention gardening programme in older people at risk of falling
Funder: Health Innovation Network, South London Innovation and Diffusion Awards
Duration: October 2016 - May 2018
In search of evidence for cerebral cortical motor areas recruited when developing collective efficacy perceptions
Funder: Wellcome Trust
Duration: July 2015 - September 2015

The overarching purpose of this project was to examine individual differences in eye movements when observing positive team performance as a means to understand the cognitive processes underpinning collective efficacy development. Specifically, we investigated whether fixation metrics across two observation conditions (still images/video footage) varied as a function of familiarity (i.e., familiar/unfamiliar with the observed content) and individual’s collective efficacy beliefs (i.e., high/low).

Research links

Co-author network

Similar research interests