1
|
Wang CH, Fu HL, Kao SC, Moreau D, Yang CT. Systems factorial technology provides novel insights into the cognitive processing characteristics of open-skill athletes. PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORT AND EXERCISE 2023; 66:102395. [PMID: 37665857 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Sport expertise has been shown to modulate the cognitive advantage in open-skill athletes, with evidence for a greater advantage for athletes practicing interceptive sports relative to strategic sports. However, this conclusion is solely based on central tendency measures such as accuracy or mean reaction time (RT), dismissing important information embedded in the intra-individual temporal dynamics of cognitive performance. This study aimed to better understand the cognitive advantage associated with open-skill sports, with a non-parametric approach assessing cognitive process at the level of RT distribution (i.e., systems factorial technology, SFT). Twenty-eight interceptive sport athletes, 27 strategic sport athletes, and 26 physically active non-athletes performed a go/nogo version of the redundant target task to assess their processing capacity of simultaneously monitoring multiple information channels. SFT was applied to assess resilience capacity, an estimate of workload capacity underlying inhibitory control. Our findings showed that interceptive sport athletes exhibited shorter mean RT relative to non-athletes selectively in the task condition involving distracting information, while strategic sport athletes showed greater resilience capacity over earlier responses relative to the other groups. These findings suggest that the two types of open-skill sports may be associated with different processing specificity, possibly reflecting the domain-specific rules and requirements.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chun-Hao Wang
- Institute of Physical Education, Health & Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan; Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Social Sciences Building, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan.
| | - Hao-Lun Fu
- Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Social Sciences Building, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan
| | - Shih-Chun Kao
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, United States
| | - David Moreau
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Cheng-Ta Yang
- Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Social Sciences Building, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wang CH, Lin CC, Moreau D, Yang CT, Liang WK. Neural correlates of cognitive processing capacity in elite soccer players. Biol Psychol 2020; 157:107971. [PMID: 33091450 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2020] [Revised: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Although great progress has been made in our understanding of perceptual-cognitive expertise in team sports, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying such cognitive advantage in the face of multiple, sometimes conflicting, channels of information are not well understood. Two electroencephalographic indices associated with perceptual decisions, the P3 component of event-related potential and alpha inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC), were measured and compared across elite soccer players and non-athletic controls while performing a redundant-target task. Specifically, we adopted an effective diagnostic tool, Systems Factorial Technology, to assess participants' workload capacity. Soccer players exhibited larger workload capacity while making faster decisions compared with controls. Moreover, this larger workload capacity was associated with modulations of P3 and alpha ITPC when processing two targets relative to one target and one distractor, an effect that was not observed in controls. Together, the present findings offer a possible mechanistic explanation of perceptual-cognitive expertise in the context of team sports.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chun-Hao Wang
- Institute of Physical Education, Health & Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, ROC.
| | - Chih-Chun Lin
- Institute of Physical Education, Health & Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, ROC
| | - David Moreau
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Cheng-Ta Yang
- Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Social Sciences Building, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, ROC; Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Social Sciences Building, No. 1, University Road, East District, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Wei-Kuang Liang
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, Jhongli, 320, Taiwan, ROC
| |
Collapse
|