Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study
ObjectivePostural control plays a key role in skill-oriented sports. Athletes of skill-oriented sports (hereinafter referred to as “skilled athletes”) usually showed better control ability compared with non-athletes. However, research focused on the single postural task, rarely considering the actua...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1219022/full |
| _version_ | 1797737623857397760 |
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| author | Jiacheng Chen Alex Pak Ki Kwok Yanan Li |
| author_facet | Jiacheng Chen Alex Pak Ki Kwok Yanan Li |
| author_sort | Jiacheng Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ObjectivePostural control plays a key role in skill-oriented sports. Athletes of skill-oriented sports (hereinafter referred to as “skilled athletes”) usually showed better control ability compared with non-athletes. However, research focused on the single postural task, rarely considering the actual situation in skill-oriented sports in which other processes, such as cognitive control, frequently accompany postural control. This study aims to explore how skilled athletes control their posture under the dual-task situation and use limited attentional resources.MethodA total of 26 skilled athletes and 26 non-athletes were required to perform the postural control and N-back tasks simultaneously. Center of pressure (COP) trajectory, reaction times (RTs), and discriminability (d′) of N-back tasks were recorded and evaluated, along with event-related potentials, including N1 (Oz, PO7, and PO8), P2 (Fz, FCz, Cz, and Pz) components, and the spectral power of alpha band.ResultsSkilled athletes demonstrated more postural control stability and a higher d′ than non-athletes in all dual tasks. Besides, they showed enhanced N1, P2 amplitudes and reduced alpha band power during dual-tasking. Notably, in skilled athletes, a significant negative correlation between N1 amplitude and d′ was observed, while significant positive correlations between alpha band power and postural control performance were also identified.ConclusionThis study investigates the potential advantages of skilled athletes in postural control from the view of neuroscience. Compared to non-athletes, skilled athletes could decrease the consumption of attentional resources in postural control and recruit more attentional resources in stimulus discrimination and evaluation in cognitive tasks. Since the allocation of attentional resources plays a crucial part in postural control in skilled athletes, optimizing the postural control training program and the selection of skilled athletes from a dual-task perspective is important. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T13:31:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0fa872c18db249f58cdcce616cf8fb55 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T13:31:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-0fa872c18db249f58cdcce616cf8fb552023-08-24T10:41:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612023-08-011710.3389/fnhum.2023.12190221219022Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential studyJiacheng Chen0Alex Pak Ki Kwok1Yanan Li2College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, ChinaData Science and Policy Studies Programme, Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaPhysical Education Department, Zhuhai Campus of Jinan University, Zhuhai, ChinaObjectivePostural control plays a key role in skill-oriented sports. Athletes of skill-oriented sports (hereinafter referred to as “skilled athletes”) usually showed better control ability compared with non-athletes. However, research focused on the single postural task, rarely considering the actual situation in skill-oriented sports in which other processes, such as cognitive control, frequently accompany postural control. This study aims to explore how skilled athletes control their posture under the dual-task situation and use limited attentional resources.MethodA total of 26 skilled athletes and 26 non-athletes were required to perform the postural control and N-back tasks simultaneously. Center of pressure (COP) trajectory, reaction times (RTs), and discriminability (d′) of N-back tasks were recorded and evaluated, along with event-related potentials, including N1 (Oz, PO7, and PO8), P2 (Fz, FCz, Cz, and Pz) components, and the spectral power of alpha band.ResultsSkilled athletes demonstrated more postural control stability and a higher d′ than non-athletes in all dual tasks. Besides, they showed enhanced N1, P2 amplitudes and reduced alpha band power during dual-tasking. Notably, in skilled athletes, a significant negative correlation between N1 amplitude and d′ was observed, while significant positive correlations between alpha band power and postural control performance were also identified.ConclusionThis study investigates the potential advantages of skilled athletes in postural control from the view of neuroscience. Compared to non-athletes, skilled athletes could decrease the consumption of attentional resources in postural control and recruit more attentional resources in stimulus discrimination and evaluation in cognitive tasks. Since the allocation of attentional resources plays a crucial part in postural control in skilled athletes, optimizing the postural control training program and the selection of skilled athletes from a dual-task perspective is important.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1219022/fullskill-oriented sportspostural stabilitydual-taskevent-related potentialsattentional resources |
| spellingShingle | Jiacheng Chen Alex Pak Ki Kwok Yanan Li Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study Frontiers in Human Neuroscience skill-oriented sports postural stability dual-task event-related potentials attentional resources |
| title | Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study |
| title_full | Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study |
| title_fullStr | Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study |
| title_short | Effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill-oriented sports: an event-related potential study |
| title_sort | effective utilization of attentional resources in postural control in athletes of skill oriented sports an event related potential study |
| topic | skill-oriented sports postural stability dual-task event-related potentials attentional resources |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1219022/full |
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