Sport Experience and Physical Activity: Event-Related Brain Potential and Task Performance Indices of Attention in Young Adults.

Mohamed Aly,Mohamed A Ahmed,Asmaa Hasan,Abdelhakem R Abdelhakem,Haruyuki Kojima

doi:10.3390/jfmk4020033

Mohamed Aly, Mohamed A Ahmed + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk4020033

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Abstract

A growing body of literature demonstrates that engaging in sport regularly and maintaining an active lifestyle have a positive impact on cognition. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sport experiences and physical activity on attention, and explore whether the type of sport can impact differently on the neuroelectric system using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). Thirty-three young adults (mean age = 19.72 ± 1.25) were divided according to their sport experience into swimmers, karateka, and irregular exercisers. Participants performed auditory oddball tasks, while measures of task performance and ERPs were collected. The results indicated that exercisers, regardless of their sport experience, exhibited a larger and shorter P3 compared to irregular exercisers. However, no significant difference was observed in the reaction time (RT) between groups. No statistically significant differences in the RT and P3 were present between swimmers and karateka. These findings suggest that sport experiences, regardless of the type, are associated with a larger amount of neural attentional resources and faster stimulus evaluation speed. The results replicate previous studies that have reported improved cognitive functions in more active individuals. They further extended the current knowledge by indicating that both swimming and karate influence attention and do not differentially alter the brain response.

Highlights

The effects of motor experience and physical activity on cognition have received growing attention in the exercise–cognition domain
The results revealed no differences between open-skill and closed-skill groups either in reaction time (RT) or P3, open-skill exercisers exhibited smaller switching cost compare to closed-skill which could be interpreted as open-skill sports may have more efficiency in cognitive flexibility [26,27] and working memory [24,28] than closed-skill sports
A comparison of the amount of physical activity between groups using a one-way ANOVA indicated that the swimmers (2205.45 ± 213.21 Metabolic Equivalent (MET)) and karateka (2148.18 ± 248.47 MET) performed a larger amount of physical activity compared to the irregular exercisers (456.36 ± 294.02 MET), (F 2, 32 = 134.58, p < 0.01, η2 = 0.90), which confirmed the regular exercise behavior groupings

Summary

Introduction

The effects of motor experience and physical activity on cognition have received growing attention in the exercise–cognition domain. The beneficial relation of chronic and acute participation in physical activity to brain health and cognition arises from the crucial role of physical activity in increasing the growth factor chemicals, improving the abundance and survival of new brain cells, and creating strong functional connectivity [4,5,6]. These neurological and physiological changes are evident when comparing high-activity and low-activity people [7,8]. Based on a review of the extant literature, regular engagement in exercise can provide a simple means for healthy people to optimize a range of executive functions [3], and appears as a noninvasive and effective strategy for counteracting neurological and cognitive disorders [3,11]

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