Differences of attentional networks function in athletes from open-skill sports: an functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the attentional networks function characteristics of interceptive and strategic sports athletes from open-skill sports. Methods We used a revised lateralized attention network task to measure attentional networks efficiency and activation related to flanker conflict effects, alerting effects, and orienting effects changes on the right frontoparietal network using functional near-infrared spectroscopy in 20 strategic sports athletes, 20 interceptive sports athletes, and 22 college students. Results The interceptive sports athletes had the fastest overall reaction time. Strategic sports athletes had the highest accuracy and smallest flanker conflict effect on accuracy. Compared with non-athletes, strategic sports athletes had a higher alerting effect, validity effect, and disengaging effect on reaction time; the disengaging effect was particularly higher than that in the interceptive sports athletes. This was accompanied by higher activity in the right frontoparietal network. Conclusions The open-skill athletes demonstrate significantly more efficient attentional function compared to non-athletes. Athletes from interceptive sports demonstrated increased speed when solving conflict, while those from strategic sports demonstrated higher accuracy. In addition, top-down control appears to play an important role in strategic sports athletes making a cautious decision. This can be attributed to the right frontoparietal network.

Attention and executive control in varsity athletes engaging in strategic and static sports

“…This study found that, in a sample of varsity athletes of comparable education, sex, and level of play, those engaging in strategic sports demonstrated increased speed, accuracy, and conflict resolution compared to static athletes on a non-sport-specific cognitive test. Findings from this study align with prior research suggesting that sport type may be associated with differential cognitive profiles [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and suggests that the deliberate practice of strategic sports may play a role in enhancing performance on non-sport-specific cognitive tasks. However, it is notable that the observed differences were relatively small (effect sizes less than 0.50), suggesting that differences in cognitive performance may be subtle when using relatively a wellmatched sample of highly fit individuals, or that differences may be explained by a disproportionate representation of athletes who are predisposed to succeed in these tasks as a result of selection bias.…”

“…Prior research has reported that athletes in open-skilled sports (i.e., volleyball) perform more accurately than athletes from closed-skilled sport and non-sport controls on measures of selective information processing [23]. Therefore, it is possible that athletes playing strategic sports may have an advantage in information processing efficiency, both in terms of speed and accuracy, which may translate to maximizing top-down processes under time pressure in anticipation of the opponents' tactical approaches, as well as the ball's movements across the field [13,21,23,68,69]. Future research is needed to further understand this relationship.…”

“…Finally, strategic sports are externally paced, open-skill, and require simultaneous information processing and effective attentional allocation (e.g., soccer, volleyball). Studies have reported differences in performance on aspects of visuomotor speed, visual attention, and executive function associated with the type of sport played [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. For example, athletes who engage in strategic sports have been found to perform better on tasks requiring visual attention and motor inhibition compared to those in interceptive sports [19], as well as better inhibitory control [15,18] and stability of performance than athletes in static sports [23].…”

Reducing Visuospatial Pseudoneglect in Healthy Subjects by Active Video Gaming

“…In the field of sport sciences, spatial attention, i.e., the ability to orient to salient visual stimuli and to parse the visual world [ 1 ], has been considered an important determinant of success in open-skill sports [ 2 ], which feature environments in constant change where skills are externally paced and have to be continually adapted. These types of sports—including, for example, volleyball, basketball and tennis—have been recently described as those that require adaptability and quick decision-making [ 3 ]. The ability to process spatial information and perceive differences or asymmetries correctly in both hemi-visual fields allow athletes to successfully perform and rapidly react to incoming stimuli (the ball or an opponent feint, for example).…”

“…The ability to process spatial information and perceive differences or asymmetries correctly in both hemi-visual fields allow athletes to successfully perform and rapidly react to incoming stimuli (the ball or an opponent feint, for example). In contrast, closed-skill sports (e.g., swimming, golf and running) are rather self-paced with a relatively stable environment [ 3 ]. Given the distinct characteristics of open- (e.g., volleyball) and closed-skill (e.g., rowing) sports, it has been hypothesised that professional athletes might show differences in their visuospatial attention abilities depending on the specific requirements of their form of sport.…”