Enhanced temporal but not attentional processing in expert tennis players

The possible positive effects of physical exercise on the global motion perception aging: the cognitive mechanism

Background

Sensitivity to global motion perception (GMP) decreases gradually with age, and the mechanism to effectively alleviate its aging process is still unclear. This study aimed to examine the impact and mechanism of exercise on GMP aging.

Methods

This study adopted the global motion direction discrimination task and used motion coherence thresholds to assess GMP sensitivity. It adopted the perceptual template model (PTM) to fit the GMP processing efficiency.

Results

The threshold for the elderly group with no exercise was higher than that of the elderly group with exercise, while the threshold of the latter was higher than that of the youth group. The results of the model fitting showed that both models, Aa and Af, corresponding to the elderly group with exercise and the elderly group with no exercise, respectively, were the best-fitted models when compared with that of the youth group. Compared to the elderly group with no exercise, models Aa and Af, were the best-fitted models.

Conclusion

These results showed that good exercise habits might have a certain degree of positive effect on GMP aging, by lower their internal additive noise (Aa), and improve the ability to eliminate external noise (Af).

The Lateralization of Spatial Cognition in Table Tennis Players: Neuroplasticity in the Dominant Hemisphere

Spatial cognition facilitates the successful completion of specific cognitive tasks through lateral processing and neuroplasticity. Long-term training in table tennis induces neural processing efficiency in the visuospatial cognitive processing cortex of athletes. However, the lateralization characteristics and neural mechanisms of visual−spatial cognitive processing in table tennis players in non-sport domains are unclear. This study utilized event-related potentials to investigate differences in the spatial cognition abilities of regular college students (controls) and table tennis players. A total of 48 participants (28 controls; 20 s-level national table tennis players) completed spatial cognitive tasks while electroencephalography data were recorded. Task performance was better in the table tennis group than in the control group (reaction time: P < 0.001; correct number/sec: P = 0.043), P3 amplitude was greater in the table tennis group (P = 0.040), spatial cognition showed obvious lateralization characteristics (P < 0.001), table tennis players showed a more obvious right-hemisphere advantage, and the P3 amplitude in the right hemisphere was significantly greater in table tennis athletes than in the control group. (P = 0.044). Our findings demonstrate a right-hemisphere advantage in spatial cognition. Long-term training strengthened the visual−spatial processing ability of table tennis players, and this advantage effect was reflected in the neuroplasticity of the right hemisphere (the dominant hemisphere for spatial processing).

Mental Fatigue and Basketball Performance: A Systematic Review

Mental fatigue (MF) is a psycho-biological state that impairs sports-related performances. Recently, it has been proved that MF can affect basketball performance. However, a systematic overview detailing the influences of MF on basketball performance is still lacking. This study aims to investigate the effects of MF on the physical, technical, tactical, and cognitive performance of basketball. We used the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, Scopes, and CKNI for articles published up to 31 May 2021. The articles included in this study were projected to test whether MF influences basketball athlete performance. Only experimental design studies were selected, and the control condition was without MF. Finally, seven articles fit the inclusion criteria. The results imply that MF impairs the technical aspects of basketball (free throws, three-point shots, and total turnover) and the players' cognitive [take-the-first (TTF) heuristics and decision-making] performance, which results in athletes not using their techniques skillfully and being unable to make practical decisions during critical points in the game. In addition to that, the influences of MF on physical and tactical performance have not been studied. Further studies should look into comprehensive research on the influences of MF on basketball performance, especially on a player's physical and tactical performance.

Systematic Review Registration: [https://inplasy.com/] [INPLASY2021100017].

The Multiple Object Avoidance (MOA) task measures attention for action: Evidence from driving and sport

Performance in everyday tasks, such as driving and sport, requires allocation of attention to task-relevant information and the ability to inhibit task-irrelevant information. Yet there are individual differences in this attentional function ability. This research investigates a novel task for measuring attention for action, called the Multiple Object Avoidance task (MOA), in its relation to the everyday tasks of driving and sport. The aim in Study 1 was to explore the efficacy of the MOA task to predict simulated driving behaviour and hazard perception. Whilst also investigating its test-retest reliability and how it correlates to self-report driving measures. We found that superior performance in the MOA task predicted simulated driving performance in complex environments and was superior at predicting performance compared to the Useful Field of View task. We found a moderate test-retest reliability and a correlation between the attentional lapses subscale of the Driving Behaviour Questionnaire. Study 2 investigated the discriminative power of the MOA in sport by exploring performance differences in those that do and do not play sports. We also investigated if the MOA shared attentional elements with other measures of visual attention commonly attributed to sporting expertise: Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) and cognitive processing speed. We found that those that played sports exhibited superior MOA performance and found a positive relationship between MOA performance and Multiple Object Tracking performance and cognitive processing speed. Collectively, this research highlights the utility of the MOA when investigating visual attention in everyday contexts.

Topical Review: Perceptual-cognitive Skills, Methods, and Skill-based Comparisons in Interceptive Sports

SIGNIFICANCE

We give a comprehensive picture of perceptual-cognitive (PC) skills that could contribute to performance in interceptive sports. Both visual skills that are low level and unlikely influenced by experience and higher-level cognitive-attentional skills are considered, informing practitioners for identification and training and alerting researchers to gaps in the literature.Perceptual-cognitive skills and abilities are keys to success in interceptive sports. The interest in identifying which skills and abilities underpin success and hence should be selected and developed is likely going to grow as technologies for skill testing and training continue to advance. Many different methods and measures have been applied to the study of PC skills in the research laboratory and in the field, and research findings across studies have often been inconsistent. In this article, we provide definitional clarity regarding whether a skill is primarily visual attentional (ranging from fundamental/low-level skills to high-level skills) or cognitive. We review those skills that have been studied using sport-specific stimuli or tests, such as postural cue anticipation in baseball, as well as those that are mostly devoid of sport context, considered general skills, such as dynamic visual acuity. In addition to detailing the PC skills and associated methods, we provide an accompanying table of published research since 1995, highlighting studies (for various skills and sports) that have and have not differentiated across skill groups.

Dissociable plasticity of visual-motor system in functional specialization and flexibility in expert table tennis players

Specialization and flexibility are two basic attributes of functional brain organization, enabling efficient cognition and behavior. However, it is largely unknown what plastic changes in specialization and flexibility in visual-motor areas occur in support of extraordinary motor skills in expert athletes and how the selective adaptability of the visual-motor system affects general perceptual or cognitive domains. Here, we used a dynamic network framework to investigate intrinsic functional specialization and flexibility of visual-motor system in expert table tennis players (TTP). Our results showed that sensorimotor areas increased intrinsic functional flexibility, whereas visual areas increased intrinsic functional specialization in expert TTP compared to nonathletes. Moreover, the flexibility of the left putamen was positively correlated with skill level, and that of the left lingual gyrus was positively correlated with behavioral accuracy of a sport-unrelated attention task. This study has uncovered dissociable plasticity of the visual-motor system and their predictions of individual differences in skill level and general attention processing. Furthermore, our time-resolved analytic approach is applicable across other professional athletes for understanding their brain plasticity and superior behavior.

The Influence of Mental Fatigue on Sessional Ratings of Perceived Exertion in Elite Open and Closed Skill Sports Athletes

ABSTRACT

Coyne, JOC, Coutts, AJ, Newton, RU, and Haff, GG. The influence of mental fatigue on sessional ratings of perceived exertion in elite open and closed skill sports athletes. J Strength Cond Res 35(4): 963-969, 2021-The main purpose of this investigation was to examine influence of mental fatigue on sessional ratings of perceived exertion (sRPE) over a training week in elite athletes in open skill (OS, i.e., more unpredictable and externally paced sports) and closed skill (CS, i.e., more predictable and internally paced) sports. Visual analogue scales for mental fatigue, sRPE (CR-10 scale), and training duration were collected from an OS group (n = 27) of basketball and volleyball athletes and a CS group (n = 28) of weightlifting and track and field athletes during a typical training week 5 months before the 2016 Olympic Games. These variables were then examined using repeated measure correlations and linear mixed models with the level of significance set for the study at p < 0.05. There was a small significant correlation between mental fatigue and sRPE in the OS group (r = 0.23, p < 0.01), but not in the CS group (r = -0.07, p = 0.38). Mental fatigue had trivial influence on sRPE during individual sessions, but had a moderate effect on total sRPE over a week (p < 0.001, f2 = 0.265) when accounting for type of sport, training duration, and injury/illness burden. It seems mental fatigue may not significantly influence sRPE in individual training sessions, but may potentially have a cumulative effect that may affect the sRPE over a training week. This suggests monitoring mental fatigue independently of other training load (TL) measures may be worthwhile for strength and conditioning specialists and sports coaches to manage their athletes and researchers conducting studies into TL and performance.

Do we agree on who is playing the ball? Developing a video-based measurement for Shared Mental Models in tennis doubles

Sport teams work in complex environments in which each member's tasks are mutually dependent on those of the others. To function effectively, expert teams generate Shared Mental Models (SMMs) to help adapt their own behavior to that of the others and master upcoming actions. Although SMMs have been discussed in domains such as organizations, there is still little research in the context of sport. One reason for this is that measurement methods have failed to incorporate the dynamic nature of the sport context. This study reports on the development of a video-based measurement of SMMs in tennis doubles. It examined the quality criteria first in a pilot and then in a main study. The final video-based measurement consists of 35 tennis doubles video clips requiring decisions on ball-taking behavior in two conditions (Self and Partner). In the condition Self, participants reported their own responses; in the condition Partner, those of their partner. The main study analyzed 29 male tennis teams with a mean age of 34.57 years (SD = 12.25) and a mean of 22.79 years (SD = 10.49) tennis experience. SMMs were analyzed for each partner as the inter-player agreement (Self-Partner) and averaged for each team. After completing the video-based measurement, participants filled out questionnaires on SMMs, team trust, and demographics. Results indicated that not only the split-half reliability (r = .49), the content validity (ηp2 = .23), the inter-player agreement (r = .63), and the inter-player agreement and accuracy (r = .61), but also the feasibility of the measurement were good. However, no relationships to the proposed convergent or criterial validity measures were found. In sum, measuring SMMs with a video-based test is possible and a promising method. No relationship to the frequently used questionnaires was found, suggesting that the two target different parts of SMMs. Future research should carefully examine and choose the appropriate measurement.

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

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.

Exposing an "Intangible" Cognitive Skill Among Collegiate Football Players: III. Enhanced Reaction Control to Motion

Football is played in a dynamic, often unpredictable, visual environment in which players are challenged to process and respond with speed and flexibility to critical incoming stimulus events. To meet this challenge, we hypothesize that football players possess, in conjunction with their extraordinary physical skills, exceptionally proficient executive cognitive control systems that optimize response execution. It is particularly important for these systems to be proficient at coordinating directional reaction and counter-reaction decisions to the very rapid lateral movements routinely made by their opponents during a game. Despite the importance of this executive skill to successful on-field performance, it has not been studied in football players. To fill this void, we compared the performances of Division I college football players (n = 525) and their non-athlete age counterparts (n = 40) in a motion-based stimulus-response compatibility task that assessed their proficiency at executing either compatible (in the same direction) or incompatible (in the opposite direction) lateralized reactions to a target's lateral motion. We added an element of decision uncertainty and complexity by giving them either sufficient or insufficient time to preload the response decision rule (i.e., compatible vs. incompatible) prior to the target setting in motion. Overall, football players were significantly faster than non-athlete controls in their choice reactions to a target's lateral motion. The reactions of all participants slowed when issuing incompatible counter-reactions to a target's lateral motion. For football players, this cost was reduced substantially compared to controls when given insufficient time to preload the decision rule, indicating that they exerted more efficient executive control over their reactions and counter-reactions when faced with decision uncertainty at the onset of stimulus motion. We consider putative sources of their advantage in reacting to a target's lateral motion and discuss how these findings advance the hypothesis that football players utilize highly-proficient executive control systems to overcome processing conflicts during motor performance.

Team sport expertise shows superior stimulus-driven visual attention and motor inhibition

Previous studies on athletes' cognitive functions have reported superior performance on tasks measuring attention and sensorimotor abilities. However, how types of sports training shapes cognitive profile remains to be further explored. In this study, we recruited elite athletes specialized in badminton (N = 35, female = 12) and volleyball (N = 29, female = 13), as well as healthy adult controls (N = 27, female = 17) who had not receive any regular sports training. All participants completed cognitive assessments on spatial attention, sensory memory, cognitive flexibility, motor inhibition, and the attention networks. The results showed that athletes generally showed superior performance on selective cognitive domains compared to healthy controls. Specifically, compared to the healthy control, volleyball players showed superior on iconic memory, inhibitory control of action, and attentional alerting, whereas badminton players showed advantages on iconic memory and basic processing speed. Overall, volleyball players outperformed badminton players on those tasks require stimulus-driven visual attention and motor inhibition, likely due to different training modalities and characteristics of specialty that involves even more complex cognitive processes. To conclude, our findings suggest cognitive plasticity may drive by sports training in team/individual sports expertise, manifesting cognitive profile in sport expertise with distinct training modalities.

The Current State of Subjective Training Load Monitoring-a Practical Perspective and Call to Action

This commentary delivers a practical perspective on the current state of subjective training load (TL) monitoring, and in particular sessional ratings of perceived exertion, for performance enhancement and injury prevention. Subjective measures may be able to reflect mental fatigue, effort, stress, and motivation. These factors appear to be important moderators of the relationship TL has with performance and injury, and they also seem to differ between open and closed skill sports. As such, mental factors may affect the interaction between TL, performance, and injury in different sports. Further, modeling these interactions may be limited due to the assumption that an independent signal can adequately account for the performance or injury outcomes. An independent signal model does not accurately reflect training environments where multiple stressors (e.g., mechanical, emotional, nutritional) impact adaptations. Common issues with using subjective TL monitoring, including a lack of differentiation between biomechanical, physiological, and cognitive load, may be overcome by considering psychometric measurement best practices, finer graded scales, and differential ratings of perceived exertion. Methods of calculating TL, including different acute and chronic time periods, may also need to be individualized to different sports and potentially different individuals within the same sport. As TL monitoring is predominately a "chronic" decision-making tool, "acute" decision-making tools, e.g., subjective wellness and autonomic nervous system measures, should be combined in a bespoke multivariate model to aid sports coaches. A call to action is presented for future research on key issues associated with TL monitoring that will have relevance for practitioners in an applied setting.

Team ball sport participation is associated with performance in two sustained visual attention tasks: Position monitoring and target identification in rapid serial visual presentation streams

We investigated the relationship between participation in team ball sports and performance in two sustained spatiotemporal attention tasks-a position monitoring variant of the multiple object tracking (MOT) task and target identification in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Thirty participants were asked about the frequency of their participation in team ball sports and undertook both the MOT task and RSVP task. In the MOT task, participants viewed an array of eight discs as they moved unpredictably for 3-8s before disappearing. On each trial, a subset of these were marked as targets for tracking, meaning that participants attempted to keep track of their positions on the screen with as much precision as possible. At the end of each trial, participants reported the final perceived position of a queried target. In the RSVP task, a stream of letters was presented at the center of the screen and participants attempted to report either one or both of two target letters embedded in the stream. Participation in team ball sports was associated with superior performance in both tasks: in the MOT task, individuals reporting more time spent playing team ball sports on a weekly basis were able to report the positions of targets with greater precision, and in the RSVP task they reported targets more accurately. The current findings add to the literature of somewhat mixed findings regarding the extent to which participation in sports may be associated with superior visual attention abilities.

The Difference in Perceptual Anticipation Between Professional Tennis Athletes and Second-Grade Athletes Before Batting

To investigate the differences in cognitive processing of perceptual anticipation of tennis players at different levels before batting by the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we used the skilled-expert paradigm. We compared the cognitive and neural mechanisms of professional tennis athletes and second-grade athletes relating to their perceptual anticipation of the batting line at different time points [the time point of the ball landing (T0), and the 80 ms before batting time point (T1)]. The results showed that, regardless of the T0 or T1 time point, professional tennis athletes had shorter anticipation times and higher correct batting line rates than second-grade athletes. The ERP results demonstrated that compared with second-grade athletes, professional tennis athletes induced smaller N1 amplitudes and larger P2 amplitudes in early perceptual anticipation, and induced smaller N2 and larger P3 amplitudes in late perceptual anticipation. These studies suggest that, regardless of whether they are in an early or late stage, tennis professional athletes are faster and more accurate in respect of their perceptual anticipation of tennis lines than second-grade athletes are. This is possible since the relevant neural network of the former is more easily activated and faster. The prefrontal cortex may be a critical area of the brain for perceptual anticipation in tennis.

Exposing an "Intangible" Cognitive Skill Among Collegiate Football Players: II. Enhanced Response Impulse Control

American football is played in a dynamic environment that places considerable demands on a player’s ability to make fast, precise reactions while controlling premature, impulsive reactions to spatial misinformation. We investigated the hypothesis that collegiate football players are more proficient than their non-athlete counterparts at controlling impulsive motor actions. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I football players (n = 280) and non-athlete controls (n = 32) completed a variant of the Simon conflict task, which quantifies choice reaction speed and the proficiency of controlling spatially driven response impulses. Overall, the choice reaction times (RTs) and accuracy rates of football players and controls were equivalent. Similarly, football players and controls were equally susceptible to producing incorrect impulsive motor responses. However, the slowing of RT attributed to the activation and successful inhibition of these impulses (i.e., the Simon effect) was reduced significantly among football players compared to controls. Moreover, differences in impulse control varied by position among the players, with the reduction being greater for offensive than for defensive players. Among offensive players, running backs, wide receivers, and offensive linemen had greater impulse control than did controls, whereas among defensive players only linebackers had greater control. Notably, the Simon effect was reduced by 60% in running backs compared to controls. These results contribute to emerging evidence that elite football players possess more proficient executive control over their motor systems than their age counterparts and suggest that the speed of controlling impulsive motor reactions may represent an enhanced cognitive “intangible” among football players.

Vision in high-level football officials

Officiating in football depends, at least to some extent, upon adequate visual function. However, there is no vision standard for football officiating and the nature of the relationship between officiating performance and level of vision is unknown. As a first step in characterising this relationship, we report on the clinically-measured vision and on the perceived level of vision in elite-level, Portuguese football officials. Seventy-one referees (R) and assistant referees (AR) participated in the study, representing 92% of the total population of elite level football officials in Portugal in the 2013/2014 season. Nine of the 22 Rs (40.9%) and ten of the 49 ARs (20.4%) were international-level. Information about visual history was also gathered. Perceived vision was assessed using the preference-values-assigned-to-global-visual-status (PVVS) and the Quality-of-Vision (QoV) questionnaire. Standard clinical vision measures (including visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis) were gathered in a subset (n = 44, 62%) of the participants. Data were analysed according to the type (R/AR) and level (international/national) of official, and Bonferroni corrections were applied to reduce the risk of type I errors. Adopting criterion for statistical significance of p<0.01, PVVS scores did not differ between R and AR (p = 0.88), or between national- and international-level officials (p = 0.66). Similarly, QoV scores did not differ between R and AR in frequency (p = 0.50), severity (p = 0.71) or bothersomeness (p = 0.81) of symptoms, or between international-level vs national-level officials for frequency (p = 0.03) or bothersomeness (p = 0.07) of symptoms. However, international-level officials reported less severe symptoms than their national-level counterparts (p<0.01). Overall, 18.3% of officials had either never had an eye examination or if they had, it was more than 3 years previously. Regarding refractive correction, 4.2% had undergone refractive surgery and 23.9% wear contact lenses when officiating. Clinical vision measures in the football officials were similar to published normative values for young, adult populations and similar between R and AR. Clinically-measured vision did not differ according to officiating level. Visual acuity measured with and without a pinhole disc indicated that around one quarter of participants may be capable of better vision when officiating, as evidenced by better acuity (≥1 line of letters) using the pinhole. Amongst the clinical visual tests we used, we did not find evidence for above-average performance in elite-level football officials. Although the impact of uncorrected mild to moderate refractive error upon officiating performance is unknown, with a greater uptake of eye examinations, visual acuity may be improved in around a quarter of officials.

Vision and Visual History in Elite/Near-Elite-Level Cricketers and Rugby-League Players

BACKGROUND

The importance of optimal and/or superior vision for participation in high-level sports remains the subject of considerable clinical research interest. Here, we examine the vision and visual history of elite/near-elite cricketers and rugby-league players.

METHODS

Stereoacuity (TNO), colour vision, and distance (with/without pinhole) and near visual acuity (VA) were measured in two cricket squads (elite/international-level, female, n = 16; near-elite, male, n = 23) and one professional rugby-league squad (male, n = 20). Refractive error was determined, and details of any correction worn and visual history were recorded.

RESULTS

Overall, 63% had their last eye examination within 2 years. However, some had not had an eye examination for 5 years or had never had one (near-elite cricketers 30%; rugby-league players 15%; elite cricketers 6%). Comparing our results for all participants to published data for young, optimally corrected, non-sporting adults, distance VA was ~ 1 line of letters worse than expected. Adopting α = 0.01, the deficit in distance VA was significant, but only for elite cricketers (p < 0.001) (near-elite cricketers, p = 0.02; rugby-league players, p = 0.03). Near VA did not differ between subgroups or relative to published norms for young adults (p > 0.02 for all comparisons). On average, near stereoacuity was better than in young adults, but only in elite cricketers (p < 0.001; p = 0.03, near-elite cricketers; p = 0.47, rugby-league players). On-field visual issues were present in 27% of participants and mostly (in 75% of cases) comprised uncorrected ametropia. Some cricketers (near-elite 17.4%; elite 38%) wore refractive correction during play, but no rugby-league player did. Some individuals with prescribed correction choose not to wear it when playing.

CONCLUSIONS

Aside from near stereoacuity in elite cricketers, the basic visual abilities we measured were not better than equivalent, published data for optimally corrected adults; 20-25% exhibited sub-optimal vision, suggesting that the clearest possible vision might not be critical for participation at the highest levels in the sports of cricket or rugby league. Although vision could be improved in a sizeable proportion of our sample, the impact of correcting these, mostly subtle, refractive anomalies on playing performance is unknown.

Neural Correlates of Expert Behavior During a Domain-Specific Attentional Cueing Task in Badminton Players

The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates associated with sports expertise during a domain-specific task in badminton players. We compared event-related potentials activity from collegiate male badminton players and a set of matched athletic controls when they performed a badminton-specific attentional cueing task in which the uncertainty and validity were manipulated. The data showed that, regardless of cue type, the badminton players had faster responses along with greater P3 amplitudes than the athletic controls on the task. Specifically, the contingent negative variation amplitude was smaller for the players than for the controls in the condition involving higher uncertainty. Such an effect, however, was absent in the condition with lower uncertainty. We conclude that expertise in sports is associated with proficient modulation of brain activity during cognitive and motor preparation, as well as response execution, when performing a task related to an individual's specific sport domain.

Does Physical Loading Affect The Speed and Accuracy of Tactical Decision-Making in Elite Junior Soccer Players?

A soccer player's capability to control and manage his behaviour in a game situation is a prerequisite, reflecting not only swift and accurate tactical decision-making, but also prompt implementation of a motor task during intermittent exercise conditions. The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between varying exercise intensity and the visual-motor response time and the accuracy of motor response in an offensive game situation in soccer. The participants (n = 42) were male, semi-professional, soccer players (M age 18.0 ± 0.9 years) and trained five times a week. Each player performed four different modes of exercise intensity on the treadmill (motor inactivity, aerobic, intermittent and anaerobic activity). After the end of each exercise, visual-motor response time and accuracy of motor response were assessed. Players' motion was captured by digital video camera. ANOVA indicated no significant difference (p = 0.090) in the accuracy of motor response between the four exercise intensity modes. Practical significance (Z-test = 0.31) was found in visual-motor response time between exercise with dominant involvement of aerobic metabolism, and intense intermittent exercise. A medium size effect (Z-test = 0.34) was also found in visual-motor response time between exercise with dominant involvement of aerobic metabolism and exercise with dominant involvement of anaerobic metabolism, which was confirmed by ANOVA (897.02 ± 57.46 vs. 940.95 ± 71.14; p = 0.002). The results showed that different modes of exercise intensity do not adversely affect the accuracy of motor responses; however, high-intensity exercise has a negative effect on visual-motor response time in comparison to moderate intensity exercise. Key pointsDifferent exercise intensity modes did not affect the accuracy of motor response.Anaerobic, highly intensive short-term exercise significantly decreased the visual-motor response time in comparison with aerobic exercise.Further research should focus on the assessment of VMRT from a player's real - field position view rather than a perspective view.

Spatial and temporal aspects of visual backward masking in children and young adolescents

The development of visual functions is very diverse. Some visual functions mature within the first year of life, whereas maturation for other functions extends into adolescence. The reasons for these developmental differences are largely unknown. Here, we investigated spatiotemporal processing in children (7–9 years, n = 15), young adolescents (11–13 years, n = 26), and adults (18–33 years, n = 24) using the shine-through visual backward-masking paradigm. We found that children had significantly longer vernier durations than either young adolescents or adults. However, children’s spatial and temporal processing of complex masks was very similar to that of young adolescents and adults. We suggest that spatiotemporal processing related to visual backward masking is already fully developed at age 7, whereas the attentional processes related to target enhancement only mature in young adolescence.

SILENCING SHARAPOVA'S GRUNT IMPROVES THE PERCEPTION OF HER SERVE SPEED

In recent years, grunting has become a familiar although generally unwelcome element of tennis. The behavior is considered to deny opponents the benefit of receiving optimal multi-sensory information in order to plan their own shots. The ability to make accurate serve-speed judgments of identical tennis serves presented on a computer screen, and accompanied by a grunt or not, was assessed among 38 participants (19 men). Accuracy and response time were measured. Analysis compared performance for below versus above average speed serves and for the grunt versus the no grunt condition. Grunting had a disruptive effect on serve-speed perception for below average serves, with most judged incorrectly to be above average. Response times for below average serves were also slower in the grunt condition. Grunting provides a complex perceptual challenge, and greater effort may be attributed to tennis serves with an accompanying grunt.

Small effects of smoking on visual spatiotemporal processing

Nicotine is an important stimulant that is involved in modulating many neuronal processes, including those related to vision. Nicotine is also thought to play a key role in schizophrenia: A genetic variation of the cholinergic nicotine receptor gene, alpha-7 subunit (CHRNA7) has been shown to be associated with stronger backward masking deficits in schizophrenic patients. In this study, we tested visual backward masking in healthy smokers and non-smokers to further understand the effects of nicotine on spatiotemporal vision. In the first study, we tested 48 participants, a group of non-smokers (n = 12) and three groups of regular smokers that were either nicotine deprived (n = 12), non-deprived (n = 12) or deprived but were allowed to smoke a cigarette directly before the start of the experiment (n = 12). Performance was similar across groups, except for some small negative effects in nicotine-deprived participants. In the second study, we compared backward masking performance between regular smokers and non-smokers for older (n = 37, 13 smokers) and younger (n = 67, 21 smokers) adults. Older adults performed generally worse than younger adults but there were no significant differences in performance between smokers and non-smokers. Taken together, these findings indicate that nicotine has no long-term negative effects on visual spatiotemporal processing as determined by visual backward masking.

Intention understanding over T: a neuroimaging study on shared representations and tennis return predictions

Studying the way athletes predict actions of their peers during fast-ball sports, such as a tennis, has proved to be a valuable tool for increasing our knowledge of intention understanding. The working model in this area is that the anticipatory representations of others' behaviors require internal predictive models of actions formed from pre-established and shared representations between the observer and the actor. This model also predicts that observers would not be able to read accurately the intentions of a competitor if the competitor were to perform the action without prior knowledge of their intention until moments before the action. To test this hypothesis, we recorded brain activity from 25 male tennis players while they performed a novel behavioral tennis intention inference task, which included two conditions: (i) one condition in which they viewed video clips of a tennis athlete who knew in advance where he was about to act/serve (initially intended serves) and (ii) one condition in which they viewed video clips of that same athlete when he did not know where he was to act/serve until the target was specified after he had tossed the ball into the air to complete his serve (non-initially intended serves). Our results demonstrated that (i) tennis expertise is related to the accuracy in predicting where another server intends to serve when that server knows where he intends to serve before (but not after) he tosses the ball in the air; and (ii) accurate predictions are characterized by the recruitment of both cortical areas within the human mirror neuron system (that is known to be involved in higher-order (top-down) processes of embodied cognition and shared representation) and subcortical areas within brain regions involved in procedural memory (caudate nucleus). Interestingly, inaccurate predictions instead recruit areas known to be involved in low-level (bottom-up) computational processes associated with the sense of agency and self-other distinction.

Expert athletes activate somatosensory and motor planning regions of the brain when passively listening to familiar sports sounds

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural response to familiar and unfamiliar, sport and non-sport environmental sounds in expert and novice athletes. Results revealed differential neural responses dependent on sports expertise. Experts had greater neural activation than novices in focal sensorimotor areas such as the supplementary motor area, and pre- and postcentral gyri. Novices showed greater activation than experts in widespread areas involved in perception (i.e. supramarginal, middle occipital, and calcarine gyri; precuneus; inferior and superior parietal lobules), and motor planning and processing (i.e. inferior frontal, middle frontal, and middle temporal gyri). These between-group neural differences also appeared as an expertise effect within specific conditions. Experts showed greater activation than novices during the sport familiar condition in regions responsible for auditory and motor planning, including the inferior frontal gyrus and the parietal operculum. Novices only showed greater activation than experts in the supramarginal gyrus and pons during the non-sport unfamiliar condition, and in the middle frontal gyrus during the sport unfamiliar condition. These results are consistent with the view that expert athletes are attuned to only the most familiar, highly relevant sounds and tune out unfamiliar, irrelevant sounds. Furthermore, these findings that athletes show activation in areas known to be involved in action planning when passively listening to sounds suggests that auditory perception of action can lead to the re-instantiation of neural areas involved in producing these actions, especially if someone has expertise performing the actions.

Effectiveness of a video-feedback and questioning programme to develop cognitive expertise in sport

The importance within sport expertise of cognitive factors has been emphasised in many research studies. Adaptations that take place in athletes’ long-term memories are going to condition their decision-making and performance, and training programmes must be developed that improve these adaptations. In our study, we provide a tactical-cognitive training programme based on video-feedback and questioning in order to improve tactical knowledge in tennis players and verify its effect when transferred to athletes’ decision-making. 11 intermediate tennis players participated in this study (12.9±0.7 years old), distributed into two groups (experimental, n = 5; control, n = 6). Tactical knowledge was measured by problem representation and strategy planning with a verbal protocol. Decision-making was measured by a systematic observation instrument. Results confirm the effectiveness of a combination of video-feedback and questioning on cognitive expertise, developing adaptations in long-term memory that produce an improvement in the quality of tactical knowledge (content, sophistication and structure). This, in turn, is transferred to the athletes’ decision-making capacity, leading to a higher percentage of successful decisions made during game play. Finally, we emphasise the need to develop effective programmes to develop cognitive expertise and improve athletes' performance, and include it in athletes’ formative stages.

Temporal preparation in athletes: a comparison of tennis players and swimmers with sedentary controls

The authors aimed to investigate the effects of different sporting experience on nonspecific temporal preparation. They evaluated temporal preparation in tennis players (an open-skill sport) and their athletic (swimmers, a closed skill-sport) and nonathletic (sedentary students) controls using a go/no-go variable foreperiod paradigm in which one simple condition and two go/no-go conditions (central-go and mixed-go) were included, which can be used to study the temporal aspects of nonspecific preparation with decision making in inhibition with different levels of cognitive load. Tennis players responded faster than nonathletic controls while there was no significant difference relative to the athletic controls. Additionally, the main finding of the present study is that the difference in reaction time between tennis players and nonathletic controls was found selectively for short foreperiods in which temporal uncertainty is higher and less temporal preparation can occur. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed that superior temporal preparation was positively associated with enhanced go/no-go decision making in the higher difficulty condition. Our findings are consistent with tennis players showing superior temporal processing. The absence of a significant effect in athletic controls suggests that there is a specific benefit from tennis training and indicates that temporal preparation may be susceptible to modulation by fitness and appropriate training.

Open vs. closed skill sports and the modulation of inhibitory control

BACKGROUND

Inhibitory control, or the ability to suppress planned but inappropriate prepotent actions in the current environment, plays an important role in the control of human performance. Evidence from empirical studies utilizing a sport-specific design has shown that athletes have superior inhibitory control. However, less is known about whether this superiority might (1) still be seen in a general cognitive task without a sport-related context; (2) be modulated differentially by different sporting expertise (e.g., tennis versus swimming).

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

Here we compared inhibitory control across tennis players, swimmers and sedentary non-athletic controls using a stop-signal task without a sport-specific design. Our primary finding showed that tennis players had shorter stop-signal reaction times (SSRTs) when compared to swimmers and sedentary controls, whereas no difference was found between swimmers and sedentary controls. Importantly, this effect was further confirmed after considering potential confounding factors (e.g., BMI, training experience, estimated levels of physical activity and VO2max), indicative of better ability to inhibit unrequired responses in tennis players.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE

This suggests that fundamental inhibitory control in athletes can benefit from open skill training. Sport with both physical and cognitive demands may provide a potential clinical intervention for those who have difficulties in inhibitory control.

The role of visual perception in action anticipation in basketball athletes

Athletes exhibit better anticipation abilities than novices. However, it is not known whether this difference is related to different visual perceptions between them and which neural elements are involved in producing this difference. Fifteen elite basketball players and 15 novices participated in an action anticipation task with basketball free throw. Accurate rate for anticipation and gaze behavior were analyzed. Functional brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found that the accurate rate for anticipation was higher in athletes than that in novices. Athletes showed more stable gaze fixation than novices and the locus of fixation was reliable in athletes but not in novices. Athletes showed higher activity in inferior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus than novices during action anticipation. We conclude that the processes for action anticipation in elite athletes and novices are different and this difference is caused by different visual perceptions between them.

Recognition of tennis serve performed by a digital player: comparison among polygon, shadow, and stick-figure models

The objective of this study was to assess the cognitive effect of human character models on the observer's ability to extract relevant information from computer graphics animation of tennis serve motions. Three digital human models (polygon, shadow, and stick-figure) were used to display the computationally simulated serve motions, which were perturbed at the racket-arm by modulating the speed (slower or faster) of one of the joint rotations (wrist, elbow, or shoulder). Twenty-one experienced tennis players and 21 novices made discrimination responses about the modulated joint and also specified the perceived swing speeds on a visual analogue scale. The result showed that the discrimination accuracies of the experienced players were both above and below chance level depending on the modulated joint whereas those of the novices mostly remained at chance or guessing levels. As far as the experienced players were concerned, the polygon model decreased the discrimination accuracy as compared with the stick-figure model. This suggests that the complicated pictorial information may have a distracting effect on the recognition of the observed action. On the other hand, the perceived swing speed of the perturbed motion relative to the control was lower for the stick-figure model than for the polygon model regardless of the skill level. This result suggests that the simplified visual information can bias the perception of the motion speed toward slower. It was also shown that the increasing the joint rotation speed increased the perceived swing speed, although the resulting racket velocity had little correlation with this speed sensation. Collectively, observer's recognition of the motion pattern and perception of the motion speed can be affected by the pictorial information of the human model as well as by the perturbation processing applied to the observed motion.

Visual Skills and Playing Positions of Olympic Field Hockey Players

Many sports require fine spatiotemporal resolution for optimal performance. Previous studies have compared anticipatory skills and the decision-making process in athletes; however, there is little information on visual skills of elite athletes, particularly hockey players. To assess visual skills of Olympic hockey players and analyze differences by playing position, and to analyze improvement of visual skills after training, 21 Olympic field hockey players were pre- and post-tested on 11 visual tasks following a 10-wk. visual training program consisting of computer-based visual exercises. There were no mean differences at pre-test between players of different positions, suggesting that performance on these visual skills was independent of playing position. However, after training, an improvement was seen in all players (when scores were averaged across all 11 visual tasks) with goalkeepers improving significantly more than any other position. This suggests the possibility of improving visual skills even in an elite population.

DHA- Rich Fish Oil Improves Complex Reaction Time in Female Elite Soccer Players

Omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) has shown to improve neuromotor function. This study examined the effects of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on complex reaction time, precision and efficiency, in female elite soccer players. 24 players from two Spanish female soccer Super League teams were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental groups, then administered, in a double-blind manner, 3.5 g·day(-1) of either DHA-rich fish oil (FO =12) or olive oil (OO = 12) over 4 weeks of training. Two measurements (pre- and post-treatment) of complex reaction time and precision were taken. Participants had to press different buttons and pedals with left and right hands and feet, or stop responding, according to visual and auditory stimuli. Multivariate analysis of variance displayed an interaction between supplement administration (pre/post) and experimental group (FO/OO) on complex reaction time (FO pre = 0.713 ± 0.142 ms, FO post = 0.623 ± 0.109 ms, OO pre = 0.682 ± 1.132 ms, OO post = 0.715 ± 0.159 ms; p = 0.004) and efficiency (FO pre = 40.88 ± 17.41, FO post = 57.12 ± 11.05, OO pre = 49.52 ± 14.63, OO post = 49. 50 ± 11.01; p = 0.003). It was concluded that after 4 weeks of supplementation with FO, there was a significant improvement in the neuromotor function of female elite soccer players. Key pointsThe results obtained from the study suggest that supplementation with DHA produced perceptual-motor benefits in female elite athletes.DHA could be a beneficial supplement in sports where decision making and reaction time efficiency are of importance.

Combining vernier acuity and visual backward masking as a sensitive test for visual temporal deficits in aging research

Performance in many everyday situations slows down when age increases. The causes of slowing down may be found on any stage of information processing. Here, we show that the combination of a vernier acuity task and the shine-through backward masking paradigm is a good paradigm to determine temporal processing deficits. The paradigm is relatively robust to optical blur and unlikely affected by motor dysfunctions. Strong masking deficits are found from an age of about 50 years on.

Differences in ball sports athletes speed discrimination skills before and after exercise induced fatigue

Substantial research exists in relation to the effect of fatigue on the cognitive skills of athletes. Very few studies in the sport domain, however, have investigated decision-making time and accuracy in relation to the discrimination of the speed of a moving object following exercise at maximal intensity. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the pre- and post-fatigue speed discrimination skills of elite ballgames athletes to determine if they prioritize accuracy or speed of decision-making when physically exhausted. The participants in the study were 163 males (M = 21.17, SD = 4.18) Estonian national level soccer (n = 79), basketball (n = 63) and volleyball (n = 21) players. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2max) was assessed during completion of an incremental exercise test on a treadmill. Speed discrimination stimuli were images of red square-shapes on a grey background presented moving along the sagittal axis at four different virtual velocities on a computer (PC) screen. Repeated measures MANOVA revealed a significant main effect for the decision-making time factor. A second MANOVA revealed a significant main effect for the decision-making accuracy factor. The soccer group made a significantly lower number of errors than the basketball group (p = 0.015) in pre- and post-fatigue decision-making accuracy. The results showed that athletes' decision-making time decreased and decision-making errors increased after a maximal aerobic capacity exercise task. A comparison of the pre- and post-fatigue speed discrimination skills of experienced basketball, volleyball and soccer players indicated that the only significant difference was for decision-making accuracy between the soccer and basketball groups. The current findings clearly demonstrated that the athletes made decisions faster at the expense of accuracy when fatigued. Key pointsThe purpose of this study was to examine differences in the pre- and post-fatigue speed discrimination skills of elite ballgames athletes to determine if they prioritize accuracy or speed of decision-making when physically exhausted.Speed discrimination stimuli were images of red square-shapes on a grey background presented moving along the sagittal axis at four different virtual velocities on a computer (PC) screen that represented the frontal plane.The participants exercised on a treadmill to level of 100% of peak oxygen uptake (VO2max).Repeated measures MANOVA revealed significant main effects for both the decision-making time and accuracy factors. The current findings clearly demonstrated that the athletes made decisions faster but with greater errors when fatigued.Post hoc analyses of the differences between the ball game sport groups indicated that soccer group participants reported a significantly lower number of errors than the basketball group (p = .015) in pre- and post-fatigue decision-making accuracy.Further investigations are required to clarify the equivocal set of previous findings regarding the relationship between the cognitive function of athletes at varying physical workload intensities.

Skill-Related Differences between Athletes and Nonathletes in Speed Discrimination

This study examined differences in decision-making time and accuracy as attributes of speed discrimination between participants skilled and less skilled in ball games. A total of 130 men, ages 18 to 28 years ( M = 21.2, SD = 2.6), participated. The athlete sample (skilled group) comprised Estonian National League volleyball ( n = 26) and basketball players ( n = 27). The nonathlete sample (less skilled group) included 77 soldiers of the Estonian Defence Force with no reported top level experience in ball games. Speed-discrimination stimuli were images of red square shapes presented moving along the sagittal axis at four different virtual velocities on a computer (PC) screen which represented the frontal plane. Analysis indicated that only decision-making time was significantly different between the elite athlete and nonathlete groups. This finding suggests a possible effect of ball-game skills for decision-making time in speed discrimination.