Hot and Cool Executive Function in Elite- and Amateur- Adolescent Athletes From Open and Closed Skills Sports

Objective Numerous studies have identified impaired decision making (DM) under both ambiguity and risk in adult patients with schizophrenia. However, the assessment of DM in patients with adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) has been challenging as a result of the instability and heterogeneity of manifestations. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Game of Dice Task (GDT), which are frequently used to evaluate DM respectively under ambiguity and risk, are sensitive to adolescents and neuropsychiatric patients. Our research intended to examine the performance of DM in a relatively large sample of patients with AOS using the above-mentioned two tasks. We also aimed to take a closer look at the relationship between DM and symptom severity of schizophrenia. Methods We compared the performance of DM in 71 patients with AOS and 53 well-matched healthy controls using IGT for DM under ambiguity and GDT for DM under risk through net scores, total scores and feedback ration. Neuropsychological tests were conducted in all participants. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in 71 patients with AOS. Pearson’s correlation revealed the relationship among total score of DM and clinical and neuropsychological data. Results Compared to healthy controls, patients with AOS failed to show learning effect and had a significant difference on the 5th block in IGT and conducted more disadvantageous choices as well as exhibited worse negative feedback rate in GDT. Apart from DM impairment under risk, diminished DM abilities under ambiguity were found related to poor executive function in AOS in the present study. Conclusions Our findings unveiled the abnormal pattern of DM in AOS, mainly reflected under the risky condition, extending the knowledge on the performance of DM under ambiguity and risk in AOS. Inefficient DM under risk may account for the lagging impulse control and the combined effects of developmental disease. In addition, our study demonstrated that the performance on IGT was related to executive function in AOS.

Sport activity can be a moderator of change in the level of cognitive and executive functions. This research sample consisted of 71 men aged 22.66 ± 1.91 years. This group was split into two subgroups: nonathletes (n = 26) and athletes (n = 45). The athletes included open skill sport athletes (n = 21) and closed skill sport athletes (n = 24). We used a standardized S-test to detect the level of cognitive functions, a standardized EPQ-R questionnaire to find out the degree of neuroticism and a standardized IVE questionnaire to measure the level of impulsivity. For data processing, we used the Kruskal–Wallis test following the Mann–Whitney test. To calculate the effect of size differences we used the coefficients η2 and r. Our research showed a higher level of cognitive function of athletes compared to nonathletes. More detailed data analysis showed that open skill sport disciplines are influential. There is also a negative relationship between the level of cognitive function and the degree of impulsivity and neuroticism. It seems that sport activity, specifically open skill sport disciplines, has the potential to increase the cognitive functions of young adult men. Personality traits—neuroticism and impulsivity—have a negative relationship with the level of cognitive functions of young men.

The ability to process goal-related visual information while ignoring goal-irrelevant information is essential for the human attention system. The study aimed to investigate how perceptual–cognitive performance was affected during high-intensity interval training (HIIT) using a 3D-multiple object tracking (3D-MOT) task called Neurotracker (NT). In an experimental design, 42 healthy adults (age M = 23.3 SD = 2.94, VO2max 52.8 ± 5.66 mL·kg−1·min−1) were randomly assigned to an intervention (HIIT + NT, NT, HIIT) or control group. NT performance (20 trials per session) was measured pre-and post-test (at 5, 15, and 25 min while running on the treadmill). The participants trained twice a week for a 4-week intervention period. There was a significant interaction effect between pre/post-test and groups regarding perceptual-cognitive performance, indicating similar enhancements in the HIIT + NT and the NT group during exercise. HIIT influences physical fitness but did not show any impact on perceptual–cognitive performance. Due to the specific NT task characteristics, improved physical abilities may not directly impact sport-specific perceptual-cognitive performance. Our findings suggest that training resulted in substantial task-specific gains. Therefore, combination training may be proposed as a training program to improve perceptual–cognitive, and physical performance in a time-efficient way.