The influence of open-skill and closed-skill sports on executive functions: a systematic review

Abstract

Aims/Background Open-skill sports are reportedly more effective than closed-skill sports in improving executive functions. However, it remains unclear as to its superiority in specific components of executive functions and specific populations. This review aims to explore the degree to which specific components of executive functions are affected by different sport types, open-skill sports and closed-skill sports, among different age groups. Methods Relevant articles published from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2023 were searched and obtained from four databases, namely EBSCO, PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct. These studies were selected through a carefully established article-filtering workflow, governed by a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the quality assessment was carried out independently by each researcher. Results Out of the 30 studies included for this systematic review, eight studies demonstrated the beneficial impacts of open-skill sports on adults by improving three executive functions subcomponents, as compared with closed-skill sports. Six studies found that open-skill sports are conducive to inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility among children and adolescents, while four studies showed that open-skill sports greatly enhance inhibitory control in elderly individuals. Conclusion Compared with closed-skill sports, open-skill sports have a favourable impact on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in children, adolescents, and adults, marked by shorter response time in inhibitory control tasks, as well as shorter response time and lower switch costs in cognitive flexibility tasks. In addition, relative to closed-skill sports, open-skill sports heightens accuracy in working memory tasks among adults.