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. 2013;8(2):e55773.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055773. Epub 2013 Feb 13.

Open vs. closed skill sports and the modulation of inhibitory control

Chun-Hao Wang  1 , Che-Chien Chang, Yen-Ming Liang, Chun-Ming Shih, Wen-Sheng Chiu, Philip Tseng, Daisy L Hung, Ovid J L Tzeng, Neil G Muggleton, Chi-Hung Juan
Affiliations

Open vs. closed skill sports and the modulation of inhibitory control

Chun-Hao Wang et al. PLoS One. 2013.

Abstract

Background: Inhibitory control, or the ability to suppress planned but inappropriate prepotent actions in the current environment, plays an important role in the control of human performance. Evidence from empirical studies utilizing a sport-specific design has shown that athletes have superior inhibitory control. However, less is known about whether this superiority might (1) still be seen in a general cognitive task without a sport-related context; (2) be modulated differentially by different sporting expertise (e.g., tennis versus swimming).

Methodology/principal findings: Here we compared inhibitory control across tennis players, swimmers and sedentary non-athletic controls using a stop-signal task without a sport-specific design. Our primary finding showed that tennis players had shorter stop-signal reaction times (SSRTs) when compared to swimmers and sedentary controls, whereas no difference was found between swimmers and sedentary controls. Importantly, this effect was further confirmed after considering potential confounding factors (e.g., BMI, training experience, estimated levels of physical activity and VO2max), indicative of better ability to inhibit unrequired responses in tennis players.

Conclusions/significance: This suggests that fundamental inhibitory control in athletes can benefit from open skill training. Sport with both physical and cognitive demands may provide a potential clinical intervention for those who have difficulties in inhibitory control.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Stop-signal task procedure.
The stop-signal task consisted of go and stop trials. All trials began central fixation. Following offset of the central fixation, a white peripheral dot was presented to the left or right of the fixation. On 25% of the trials (stop trials), the central fixation dot reappeared as an instruction to withhold responses.
Figure 2
Figure 2. The procedures for the experimental sessions.
Tennis players, swimmers and sedentary controls were firstly provided with informed consent, 7.-day physical activity recall questionnaire, and fitness questionnaire. Secondly, all eligible subjects took part in a stop-signal task consisted of three stages: get Go session, critical SSD session, and test session.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Stop-signal reaction time calculation.
The figure illustrates the relation between stop signal delay, the stop signal reaction time and the distribution of go reaction times. The distribution of go reaction is integrated from the time of go signal presentation. For each stop signal delay, a probability of responding is obtained. If the stop signal delay of 50 ms resulted in an error rate = .20, this means that the end of the stop process should be at a point equal to 20% of the go RT distribution. If the point of 20% of the go RT distribution was 250 ms, so the observed SSRT would be 252–50 ms. The rest of the SSRT were calculated with the same procedure. A summary SSRT was acquired by averaging the observed three SSRTs that corresponded to 0.15
Figure 4
Figure 4. Mean Go RTs (in milliseconds) for each condition across tennis players, swimmers, and controls.
(a) No stop-signal condition. (b) Correct Go RTs in stop-signal condition. (c) Noncancelled Go RTs in stop-signal condition. Each error bar shows the standard error of the mean.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Inhibitory control performance across tennis players, swimmers and controls.
(a) Mean stop-signal reaction times (b) Noncancelled rates (c) Inhibitory functions for each SSD. Each error bar shows the standard error of the mean. Note: **p<.01; ***p<.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

CHW, CMS, PT, DLH, OJT and CHJ were supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan (Grant numbers: NSC-101-2628-H-008-001-MY4, NSC-101-2410-H-008-033-MY3, NSC-99-2410-H-008-022-MY3, NSC-100-2511-S-008-019, NSC-98-2410-H-008-010-MY3, NSC-98-2517-S-004-001-MY3, NSC-099-2811-H-008-005). NGM was supported by the UK Medical Research Council and the National Science Council, Taiwan (Grant number: NSC-100-2410-H-008-074-MY3). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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