School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, West Yorkshire, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, North Yorkshire, UK.
Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 6;10(1):13216. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69975-z.
The issue of whether visually-mediated, simple reaction time (VRT) is faster in elite athletes is contentious. Here, we examined if and how VRT is affected by gaze stability in groups of international cricketers (16 females, 28 males), professional rugby-league players (21 males), and non-sporting controls (20 females, 30 males). VRT was recorded via a button-press response to the sudden appearance of a stimulus (circular target-diameter 0.8°), that was presented centrally, or 7.5° to the left or right of fixation. The incidence and timing of saccades and blinks occurring from 450 ms before stimulus onset to 225 ms after onset were measured to quantify gaze stability. Our results show that (1) cricketers have faster VRT than controls; (2) blinks and, in particular, saccades are associated with slower VRT regardless of the level of sporting ability; (3) elite female cricketers had steadier gaze (fewer saccades and blinks) compared to female controls; (4) when we accounted for the presence of blinks and saccades, our group comparisons of VRT were virtually unchanged. The stability of gaze is not a factor that explains the difference between elite and control groups in VRT. Thus we conclude that better gaze stability cannot explain faster VRT in elite sports players.
视觉介导的简单反应时（VRT）是否在精英运动员中更快存在争议。在这里，我们研究了注视稳定性是否以及如何影响国际板球运动员（16 名女性，28 名男性）、职业橄榄球联盟球员（21 名男性）和非运动对照组（20 名女性，30 名男性）的 VRT。VRT 通过按钮按下反应记录，对突然出现的刺激（圆形目标直径 0.8°）做出反应，刺激呈现在中央或固定注视点的左侧或右侧 7.5°处。从刺激出现前 450 毫秒到出现后 225 毫秒，测量眨眼和扫视的发生率和时间，以量化注视稳定性。我们的结果表明：（1）板球运动员的 VRT 比对照组快；（2）眨眼，特别是扫视，与 VRT 较慢相关，无论运动能力水平如何；（3）与女性对照组相比，精英女性板球运动员的注视更稳定（眨眼和扫视次数更少）；（4）当我们考虑到眨眼和扫视的存在时，我们对 VRT 的组间比较几乎没有变化。注视的稳定性不是解释 VRT 中精英组和对照组之间差异的因素。因此，我们得出结论，更好的注视稳定性不能解释精英运动员中更快的 VRT。
