Shih Chia-Hao, Broadnax Michaela, Eckner James, Veliz Philip, Varangis Eleanna
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2025 Jun 1;57(6):1182-1188. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003655. Epub 2025 Jan 29.
Sports participation in childhood is known to benefit physical health, but its effect on cognitive development, particularly comparing open-skill and closed-skill sports, is less understood.
This study analyzed baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, comprising 11,869 children 9-10 yr old. Participants were categorized into open-skill sports group, closed-skill sports group, and nonsport group. Cognitive performance was assessed using seven tasks from the NIH Toolbox, covering executive function, processing speed, and language domains. Group differences were examined using ANCOVA, controlling for sex, race, parental education, income, area deprivation index, body mass index, and total time spent in activities.
In the final analytical sample of 9,898 ABCD participants, the open-skill sports group (OSG) outperformed both the closed-skill sports group and nonsport group on executive function tasks, including the flanker task ( P < 0.01) and the List Sorting Working Memory task ( P < 0.01). No significant group differences were found on tasks assessing processing speed, or language domains.
Our findings suggest that participation in open-skill sports may be associated with enhanced cognitive performance in childhood, particularly in executive function. These results support the idea that dynamic and cognitively demanding activities could play a role in cognitive development during key developmental periods.
众所周知，儿童时期参与体育运动有益于身体健康，但其对认知发展的影响，尤其是比较开放性技能运动和封闭性技能运动的影响，却鲜为人知。
本研究分析了青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD）研究的基线数据，该研究包含11869名9至10岁的儿童。参与者被分为开放性技能运动组、封闭性技能运动组和非运动组。使用美国国立卫生研究院工具包中的七项任务评估认知表现，涵盖执行功能、处理速度和语言领域。使用协方差分析检验组间差异，控制性别、种族、父母教育程度、收入、地区贫困指数、体重指数和活动总时长。
在9898名ABCD参与者的最终分析样本中，开放性技能运动组（OSG）在执行功能任务上的表现优于封闭性技能运动组和非运动组，包括侧翼任务（P<0.01）和列表排序工作记忆任务（P<0.01）。在评估处理速度或语言领域的任务上未发现显著的组间差异。
我们的研究结果表明，参与开放性技能运动可能与儿童时期认知表现的提高有关，尤其是在执行功能方面。这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即动态且对认知有要求的活动可能在关键发育阶段的认知发展中发挥作用。
