Abstract
Executive functions play an important role in sports since the ability to plan, organize, and regulate behavior to reach an objective or goal depends on these functions. Some of the components of executive functions, such as inhibition of impulsive behavior and cognitive flexibility, are necessary for contact sports (e.g., American football) to carry out successful plays on the sports field. Executive functions have been studied in the sporting environment, but their relationship with the athletes’ basic psychological needs (BPN), such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness, remains unexplored. Due to the importance of motivational processes over cognitive functions and in the generated adaptive results in athletes, this relationship should be taken into account. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze and compare executive functioning and psychological need thwarting overimpulsivity and psychological distress, before and after the season (4 months) in 28 undergraduate football players. Neuropsychological and psychological tests were applied. The results showed that there was an improvement in inhibition and planning at the end of the season. There was also an increase in attention and motor impulsiveness, and a decrease in need thwarting at the end of the season. A positive association between executive function, impulsiveness, psychological needs, and affective symptoms were also found. Our findings reveal the dynamics of sport-related psychological variables throughout the sport season in American football players, the association of these for the achievement of sport success, and the importance of encouraging proper management of emotions.
Highlights
The development of maximum sporting capacities depends on different components, such as physiological, technical, cognitive, emotional, personality-related, and motivational factors
Several studies have reported a positive association between cognitive function and physical activity, e.g., improvement in planning ability (Davis et al, 2011), better inhibitory control (Hillman et al, 2009; Wu et al, 2011), improvement in working memory (Kubesch et al, 2009; Rigoli et al, 2012), greater cognitive flexibility (Buck et al, 2008), and better responses in cognitive tests measuring aspects related to executive function (Stroth et al, 2009)
We propose that the variations in impulsiveness throughout the season may result from increases in so-called functional impulsiveness, as reported in the study conducted by Hickmann in 2004 with NFL players where most players scored higher on functional, compared to dysfunctional, impulsiveness in the Functional/Dysfunctional Impulsiveness Inventory (FDI)
Summary
The development of maximum sporting capacities depends on different components, such as physiological, technical, cognitive, emotional, personality-related, and motivational factors. The cognitive component refers to the set of mental processes carried out by individuals Among these processes, executive functions are the mental skills essential to perform effective, creative, and socially accepted behavior (Lezak, 1995). Executive function is a construct that comprises a series of cognitive abilities involved in the control of thought and behavior (Zelazo and Carlson, 2012). This is why, in the sporting environment, these abilities or functions are involved in a variety of tasks performed within physical practice (Lezak, 1993; Hillman et al, 2003; Davidson et al, 2006). Collective sports entail tasks with a great cognitive load, such as collaborating with teammates, anticipating the actions of opponents, developing strategies to achieve a successful play, or inhibiting secondary stimuli, and focusing on important ones, which, in turn, stimulate executive functions since great cognitive involvement is required that generates greater brain activation
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