Table tennis expertise influences dual-task costs in timed and self-initiated tasks

The Effect of a Cognitive Dual Task on Gait Parameters among Healthy Young Adults with Good and Poor Sleep Quality: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Background: Sleep quality is known to affect automatic and executive brain functions such as gait control and cognitive processing. This study aimed to investigate the effect of dual tasks on gait spatiotemporal parameters among young adults with good and poor sleep quality. Methods: In total, 65 young adults with a mean age of 21.1 ± 2.5 were assessed for gait analysis during single-task and dual-task conditions. The participants' sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and gait was assessed using the BTS Gaitlab System. The participants were asked to walk at natural speed as a single-task condition, followed by walking while performing a cognitive task as a dual-task condition. The parameters assessed included the gait velocity (m/s), cadence (steps/min), step width (m), and stride length (m). The dual-task cost (DTC) on each gait parameter was calculated. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the differences in the DTC on gait variables between the good and poor sleep quality groups and the Spearman correlation test was used to assess the correlation between total PSQI scores and the DTC. Results: At a significance level of p < 0.05, a significant difference in cadence between the two sleep quality groups was observed, in addition to a positive correlation between sleep quality and the DTC effect on gait mean velocity, cadence, and stride length. Our findings also revealed a greater DTC in participants with poorer sleep quality. Conclusions: These findings contribute to our perception of the significance of sleep quality in gait performance while multitasking in younger populations.

Mutual interference between memory encoding and motor skills: the influence of motor expertise

In cognitive-motor dual-task situations, the extent of performance decrements is influenced by the attentional requirements of each task. Well-learned motor skills should be automatized, leading to less interference. This study presents two studies combining an episodic memory encoding task with well-practiced motor tasks in athletes. Study 1 asked 40 rowers (early teenagers to middle adulthood) to row on ergometers at slow or fast speeds. In study 2, Taekwondo athletes (n = 37) of different skill levels performed a well-practiced sequence of martial arts movements. Performing the motor task during encoding led to pronounced performance reductions in memory in both studies, with costs of up to 80%. Cognitive costs were even larger when rowing with the fast compared to the slow speed in study 1. Both studies also revealed decrements in motor performances under dual-task conditions: Rowing became slower and more irregular (study 1), and the quality of the Taekwondo performance was reduced. Although higher-level athletes outperformed others in motor skills under single-task conditions, proportional dual-task costs were similar across skill levels for most domains. This indicates that even well-practiced motor tasks require cognitive resources.

Ankle proprioception in table tennis players: Expertise and sport-specific dual task effects

OBJECTIVES

To compare ankle proprioception between professional adolescent table tennis players at national and regional levels and age-matched non-athletes, and, in a nominally upper-limb sport, to explore the relationships between single- and dual-task ankle proprioception, years of training and sport-specific performance.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional observational study.

METHODS

Fifty-five participants (29 professional adolescent table tennis players and 26 non-athletic peers) volunteered. Ankle proprioception was first assessed using the active movement extent discrimination apparatus (AMEDA-single) for all; yet only the players were then re-assessed while executing a secondary ball-hitting task (AMEDA-dual). The mean Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve was calculated as the proprioceptive score, and years of training and hitting rate were recorded.

RESULTS

National-level players had significantly better ankle proprioception as shown by higher AMEDA-single scores than the other groups (all p < 0.05). Ankle proprioceptive performance was significantly impaired while ball-hitting (F1,28 = 58.89, p ≤ 0.001, ηp2 = 0.69). National-level players outperformed the regional-level significantly on the AMEDA-dual task (F1,27 = 21.4, p ≤ 0.001, ηp2 = 0.44). Further, ankle proprioceptive performance was related to expertise, in that both AMEDA-single and AMEDA-dual proprioceptive scores were correlated with years of training and ball-hitting rate (r from 0.40 to 0.54, all p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Ankle proprioception is a promising measure that may be used to identify different ability levels among adolescent table tennis players. Superior ankle proprioception may arise from rigorous training and contribute to stroke accuracy. Dual-task proprioceptive assessment suggests how elite table tennis players perform differently from lower-ranked players in complex and changeable sports circumstances.

Increased Cortical Activity in Novices Compared to Experts During Table Tennis: A Whole-Brain fNIRS Study Using Threshold-Free Cluster Enhancement Analysis

There is a growing interest to understand the neural underpinnings of high-level sports performance including expertise-related differences in sport-specific skills. Here, we aimed to investigate whether expertise level and task complexity modulate the cortical hemodynamics of table tennis players. 35 right-handed table tennis players (17 experts/18 novices) were recruited and performed two table tennis strokes (forehand and backhand) and a randomized combination of them. Cortical hemodynamics, as a proxy for cortical activity, were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and the behavioral performance (i.e., target accuracy) was assessed via video recordings. Expertise- and task-related differences in cortical hemodynamics were analyzed using nonparametric threshold-free cluster enhancement. In all conditions, table tennis experts showed a higher target accuracy than novices. Furthermore, we observed expertise-related differences in widespread clusters compromising brain areas being associated with sensorimotor and multisensory integration. Novices exhibited, in general, higher activation in those areas as compared to experts. We also identified task-related differences in cortical activity including frontal, sensorimotor, and multisensory brain areas. The present findings provide empirical support for the neural efficiency hypothesis since table tennis experts as compared to novices utilized a lower amount of cortical resources to achieve superior behavioral performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the task complexity of different table tennis strokes is mirrored in distinct cortical activation patterns. Whether the latter findings can be useful to monitor or tailor sport-specific training interventions necessitates further investigations.