Bianco Valentina, Di Russo Francesco, Perri Rinaldo Livio, Berchicci Marika
Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Rome 00135, Italy.
Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Rome 00135, Italy; IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome 00179, Italy.
Neuroscience. 2017 Feb 20;343:260-268. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.12.006. Epub 2016 Dec 18.
Practicing sport at top level requires excellent physical and cognitive skills. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether specific sport practice may affect the preparation-perception-action stages of processing during a visuo-motor task requiring perceptual discrimination and fast response. We recruited 39 participants (two groups of professional fencers and boxers, and a control group; N=13 for each group) and measured behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) while performing a go/no-go task. Results revealed that athletes were faster than controls, while fencers were more accurate than boxers. ERP analysis revealed that motor preparation, indexed by the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), was increased in athletes than controls, whereas the top-down attentional control, reflected by the prefrontal negativity (pN) component, was enhanced only in fencers when compared to controls. Most of the post-stimulus ERPs i.e. the N1, the N2, the P3, and the pP2, were enhanced in fencers. Combat sports require fast action execution, but the preparatory brain activity might differ according to the specific practice required by each discipline. Boxers might afford to commit more errors (as reflected by high commission error (CE) rate and by a small pN amplitude), while fencers have to be as much fast and accurate as possible (thanks to an enhanced pN amplitude). Although the possible influence of repetitive head blows on cerebral activity cannot be excluded in boxers, our results suggest that cognitive benefits of high-level sport practice might also be transferred to the daily (i.e., no sport-related) activities.
在顶级水平进行体育运动需要出色的身体和认知技能。本研究的目的是调查特定的运动训练是否会影响在需要感知辨别和快速反应的视觉运动任务中处理的准备 - 感知 - 行动阶段。我们招募了39名参与者（两组职业击剑运动员和拳击手，以及一个对照组；每组N = 13），并在执行一个go/no-go任务时测量行为表现和事件相关电位（ERP）。结果显示，运动员比对照组更快，而击剑运动员比拳击手更准确。ERP分析显示，以 Bereitschaftspotential（BP）为指标的运动准备在运动员中比对照组增强，而由前额叶负波（pN）成分反映的自上而下的注意力控制，与对照组相比仅在击剑运动员中增强。大多数刺激后的ERP，即N1、N2、P3和pP2，在击剑运动员中增强。格斗运动需要快速执行动作，但准备性脑活动可能因每个学科所需的特定训练而有所不同。拳击手可能会犯更多错误（如高错误率（CE）和小的pN振幅所反映），而击剑运动员必须尽可能快速和准确（由于增强的pN振幅）。虽然不能排除重复性头部打击对拳击手大脑活动的可能影响，但我们的结果表明，高水平运动训练的认知益处也可能转移到日常（即与运动无关）活动中。
