Selective enhancement of attentional networks in college table tennis athletes: a preliminary investigation

Wang, Biye; Guo, Wei; Zhou, Changle

doi:10.7717/peerj.2762

“…To strengthen the effect of selective enhancement, ROC analysis showed that the executive network had a larger power than the alerting and orienting network at discriminating between open-skill exercisers and the controls in older adults. These results are similar with a previous study showing that college-level table tennis athletes exhibit selectively enhanced executive control of the attentional networks (Wang, Guo & Zhou, 2016). Thus, the selective enhancement of the executive control network of open-skill exercise occurs in both younger and older adults.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exercise mode and attentional networks in older adults: a cross-sectional study

Wang

¹

,

Guo

²

2020

PeerJ

Self Cite

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Background Previous studies have indicated that physical exercise enhances attentional function; however, the relationship between exercise mode and attentional networks has not been clarified for older adults (>60 years old). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between attentional networks and different exercise modes in older adults. Methods Two hundred and fifty-nine participants aged between 60 to 81 years were enrolled and classified into three groups (closed-skill group, open-skill group, or sedentary control group) using an exercise-related questionnaire. All participants completed an attention network test (ANT), which measured executive control, orienting, and alerting networks. Results The open-skill group had significantly higher executive network efficiency compared to the closed-skill (p < 0.01) and sedentary (p < 0.01) groups. The closed-skill group had significantly higher values compared to the sedentary control group (p < 0.05). Differences were not detected among groups for alerting and orienting networks (p > 0.05). The open-skill group had significantly higher values compared to the sedentary control group regarding proportion score of executive network (p < 0.01). In comparison, no significant differences were detected among groups for proportion scores of alerting and orienting networks. Conclusion This study extends current knowledge by demonstrating that open-skill exercises selectively enhance the executive control of attentional networks in older adults. Open-skill exercises combines physical exercise and cognitive training, potentially representing a more effective exercise mode to maintain or enhance attentional function in older adults.

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“…To strengthen the effect of selective enhancement, ROC analysis showed that the executive network had a larger power than the alerting and orienting network at discriminating between open-skill exercisers and the controls in older adults. These results are similar with a previous study showing that college-level table tennis athletes exhibit selectively enhanced executive control of the attentional networks(Wang et al 2016). Thus, the selective enhancement of the executive control network of open-skill exercise occurs in both younger and older adults.…”

supporting

confidence: 91%

“…ANT has been used by previous studies to show the positive effects of martial arts training (Johnstone & Marí-Beffa 2018), table tennis training (Wang et al 2016), chronic exercise (Pérez et al 2014), and acute bouts of aerobic exercise (Chang et al 2015;Huertas et al 2011)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #3 of "Exercise mode and attentional networks in older adults: a cross-sectional study (v0.1)"

Setti¹

2020

0

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Background Previous studies have indicated that physical exercise enhances attentional function; however, the relationship between exercise mode and attentional networks has not been clarified for older adults (>60 years old). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between attentional networks and different exercise modes in older adults. Methods Two hundred and fifty-nine participants aged between 60 to 81 years were enrolled and classified into three groups (closed-skill group, open-skill group, or sedentary control group) using an exercise-related questionnaire. All participants completed an attention network test (ANT), which measured executive control, orienting, and alerting networks. Results The open-skill group had significantly higher executive network efficiency compared to the closed-skill (p < 0.01) and sedentary (p < 0.01) groups. The closed-skill group had significantly higher values compared to the sedentary control group (p < 0.05). Differences were not detected among groups for alerting and orienting networks (p > 0.05). The open-skill group had significantly higher values compared to the sedentary control group regarding proportion score of executive network (p < 0.01). In comparison, no significant differences were detected among groups for proportion scores of alerting and orienting networks. Conclusion This study extends current knowledge by demonstrating that open-skill exercises selectively enhance the executive control of attentional networks in older adults. Open-skill exercises combines physical exercise and cognitive training, potentially representing a more effective exercise mode to maintain or enhance attentional function in older adults.

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“…The findings implied that the motor skill training would shorten the link-step distance to accelerate the reaction, movement planning and execution with high attentional demands (Wolf et al, 2014). This is especially important for the fast-pace racket athletes of badminton and table tennis (van de Water et al, 2017;Wang, Guo, & Zhou, 2016a).…”

Section: Optimal Connectivity Distance Differences Between Athletesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation of brain functional stream architecture in athletes with fast demands of sensorimotor integration

Gao

¹

,

Yu

²

,

Su

³

et al. 2018

Human Brain Mapping

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Training‐induced neuroplasticity has been described in athletes' population. However, it remains largely unknown how regular training and sports proficiency modifies neuronal circuits in the human brain. In this study, we used voxel‐based morphometry and stepwise functional connectivity (SFC) analyses to uncover connectivity changes in the functional stream architecture in student‐athletes at early stages of sensorimotor skill training. Thirty‐two second‐year student‐athletes whose major was little‐ball sports and thirty‐four nonathlete controls were recruited for the study. We found that athletes showed greater gray matter volume in the right sensorimotor area, the limbic lobe, and the anterior lobe of the cerebellum. Furthermore, SFC analysis demonstrated that athletes displayed significantly smaller optimal connectivity distance from those seed regions to the dorsal attention network (DAN) and larger optimal connectivity distance to the default mode network (DMN) compared to controls. The Attention Network Test showed that the reaction time of the orienting attention subnetwork was positively correlated with SFC between the seeds and the DAN, while negatively correlated with SFC between the seeds and the DMN. Our findings suggest that neuroplastic adaptations on functional connectivity streams after motor skill training may enable novel information flow from specific areas of the cortex toward distributed networks such as the DAN and the DMN. This could potentially regulate the focus of external and internal attention synchronously in athletes, and consequently accelerate the reaction time of orienting attention in athletes.

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Selective enhancement of attentional networks in college table tennis athletes: a preliminary investigation

Cited by 34 publications

References 25 publications

Exercise mode and attentional networks in older adults: a cross-sectional study

Exercise mode and attentional networks in older adults: a cross-sectional study

Peer Review #3 of "Exercise mode and attentional networks in older adults: a cross-sectional study (v0.1)"

Adaptation of brain functional stream architecture in athletes with fast demands of sensorimotor integration

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