Enhanced Cognitive Inhibition in Table Tennis Athletes: Insights from Color-Word and Spatial Stroop Tasks.

The ability to inhibit conflicting information is pivotal in the dynamic and high-speed context of fast-ball sports. However, the behavioral and electrophysiological characteristics underlying the cognitive inhibition processes associated with table tennis expertise remain unexplored. This study aims to bridge these research gaps by utilizing the color-word Stroop task and the spatial Stroop task alongside event-related potential (ERP) measurements to investigate domain-general and domain-specific cognitive inhibition among table tennis athletes. The study involved a total of 40 participants, including 20 table tennis athletes (11 males and 9 females; mean age 20.75 years) and 20 nonathletes (9 males and 11 females; mean age 19.80 years). The group differences in the Stroop effect on behavioral outcomes and ERP amplitudes were compared within each task, respectively. In the color-word Stroop tasks, athletes exhibited smaller incongruent-related negative potential amplitudes (Ninc; 300-400 ms; p = 0.036) and a diminished Stroop effect on late sustained potential amplitudes (LSP; 500-650 ms; p = 0.028) than nonathletes, although no significant differences were observed in behavioral outcomes (p > 0.05). Conversely, in the spatial Stroop tasks, athletes not only responded more swiftly but also exhibited reduced Stroop effects on both LSP amplitudes (350-500 ms; p = 0.004) and reaction times (p = 0.002) relative to nonathletes. These findings suggest that table tennis athletes excel in cognitive inhibition in the context of both domain-general and domain-specific tasks, particularly exhibiting enhanced performance in tasks that are closely aligned with the demands of their sport. Our results support the neural efficiency hypothesis and improve our understanding of the interactions between cognitive functions and table tennis expertise.

Characteristics of Resting-State Electroencephalogram Network in α-Band of Table Tennis Athletes.

BACKGROUND: Table tennis athletes have been extensively studied for their cognitive processing advantages and brain plasticity. However, limited research has focused on the resting-state function of their brains. This study aims to investigate the network characteristics of the resting-state electroencephalogram in table tennis athletes and identify specific brain network biomarkers. METHODS: A total of 48 healthy right-handed college students participated in this study, including 24 table tennis athletes and 24 controls with no exercise experience. Electroencephalogram data were collected using a 64-conductive active electrode system during eyes-closed resting conditions. The analysis involved examining the average power spectral density and constructing brain functional networks using the weighted phase-lag index. Network topological characteristics were then calculated. RESULTS: The results revealed that table tennis athletes exhibited significantly higher average power spectral density in the α band compared to the control group. Moreover, athletes not only demonstrated stronger functional connections, but they also exhibited enhanced transmission efficiency in the brain network, particularly at the local level. Additionally, a lateralization effect was observed, with more potent interconnected hubs identified in the left hemisphere of the athletes' brain. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings imply that the α band may be uniquely associated with table tennis athletes and their motor skills. The brain network characteristics of athletes during the resting state are worth further attention to gain a better understanding of adaptability of and changes in their brains during training and competition.

Does response inhibition occur unconsciously? A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.

Consciousness is traditionally considered necessary for response inhibition. Recently, researchers have attempted to explore unconscious response inhibition using the masked go/no-go task. However, their findings were controversial and might have been confounded by the methodology employed. Therefore, we used a three-level Bayesian meta-analysis to provide the first systematic overview of the field of unconscious response inhibition. Finally, 34 studies in 16 articles with a total sample size of 521 were included. In summary, we found only inconclusive evidence of a reaction time slowing effect after excluding studies with conscious no-go experience (mean difference = 8.47 ms, BF10 = 2.71). In addition, the overall effect size of the difference in sensitivity to masked stimuli between the masked go/no-go task and the objective awareness task was small and uncertain (mean difference = 0.09, BF10 = 2.39). Taken together, these findings indicate a lack of solid evidence for the occurrence of unconscious response inhibition. Our findings do not oppose the possibility of unconscious response inhibition, but rather emphasize the need for more rigorous research methodologies in this field.

The Essential Role of Executive Attention in Unconscious Visuomotor Priming.

Many reports have emphasized that unconscious processing demands attention. However, some studies were unable to observe a modulation of attentional load in subliminal visual processing. We proposed that the paradoxical phenomena could be explained based on whether the mental workload task was involved in central executive processes. In two experiments, by combining a masked shape discrimination task with an N-back task, executive attention availability for masked visuomotor processing decreased as the N-back task demand increased. We observed that unconscious visuomotor priming diminished with increasing executive attention load in Experiment 2; however, this pattern did not occur in Experiment 1. Further analysis verified that in Experiment 1, the role of the central executive in unconscious visuomotor priming was eliminated by the accuracy-speed trade-off since the higher load spatial N-back tasks with larger memory set sizes, compared with higher load verbal N-bask tasks, were quite difficult for the subjects to manage. Therefore, our results demonstrated that central executive load modulates unconscious visuomotor priming and that this modulation can be weakened by task difficulty. Collectively, by emphasizing the essential role of executive attention in subliminal visuomotor priming, the present work provides a powerful interpretation of prior debates and develops extant attention capacity limitations from the realm of consciousness to that of unconsciousness.

Unconscious priming shares a common resource pool with the manipulation subsystem.

Background: Working memory can be subdivided into two relatively independent subordinate systems, the maintenance subsystem and the manipulation subsystem. Although the two subsystems are quite heterogeneous, research thus far has not adequately distinguished the resource pools of the two subsystems. Additionally, previous research on the relationship between working memory and unconscious priming is paradoxical. Different subsystems leading to different effects on unconscious priming might be the reason for the paradoxical research. Therefore, the current article aimed to distinguish the resource pools among two working-memory subsystems and to investigate the relationship between the two subsystems and unconscious priming. Methods: To address these issues, a maintenance dual-task and a manipulation dual-task program were developed. Each participant had to separately perform the two dual tasks in a balanced order. In each dual task, participants first completed a masked priming task accompanied by working-memory load. As a control, participants completed a prime identification test to confirm that the processing of the masked prime was at the unconscious level. The maintenance dual task comprised sandwich masking trials accompanied by Sternberg trials, while the manipulation dual task comprised sandwich masking trials accompanied by N-back trials. Results: The results of the prime identification test indicated that the participants could not consciously perceive the masked prime of both dual tasks. The results of the working-memory task of both dual tasks indicated that the load manipulation was successful for both dual tasks. Most importantly, the results of the masking task of both dual tasks showed that an increase in working-memory load decreased the magnitude of unconscious priming in the manipulation dual task, whereas an increase in working-memory load did not decrease unconscious priming in the maintenance dual task. These observations demonstrate that the manipulation subsystem, rather than the maintenance subsystem, interferes with unconscious priming. Together with previous research, we propose a two-pool attention resource model to explain the modulation of working memory on unconscious priming by dissociating the executive resource pool of the manipulation system from the retention resource pool of the maintenance system. Thus, the current work confirms and extends the extant literature about the dependence of unconscious processing on attention resources by suggesting that unconscious priming shares a common resource pool with the manipulation subsystem.

The Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus Plays an Important Role in Unconscious Information Processing: Activation Likelihood Estimation Analysis Based on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Unconsciousness is a kind of brain activity that occurs below the level of consciousness, and the masked priming paradigm is a classic paradigm to study unconscious perceptual processing. With the deepening of unconscious perception research, different researchers mostly use different experimental materials and different masked priming paradigms in a single experiment but not for the comprehensive analysis of the unconscious information processing mechanism itself. Thus, the purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis through a cross-experimental paradigm, cross-experimental materials, and cross-experimental purposes. We used activation likelihood estimation to test functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, involving 361 subjects, 124 foci in eight studies representing direct comparison of unconscious processing with baseline, and 115 foci in 10 studies representing direct comparison of unconscious priming effects. In the comparison of unconscious processing and baseline, clusters formed in the left superior parietal gyrus, the right insular gyrus, and the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) triangular part after correcting for familywise error (FWE). In the comparison of priming effects, clusters formed in only the right IFG triangular part after correcting for FWE. Here, we found that ventral and dorsal pathways jointly regulate unconscious perceptual processes, but only the ventral pathway is involved in the regulation of unconscious priming effects. The IFG triangular part is involved in the regulation of unconscious perceptual processing and unconscious priming effects and may be an important brain area in unconscious information processing. These preliminary data provide conditions for further study of the neural correlation of unconscious information processing.

Comparison of physical fitness and mental health status among school-age children with different sport-specific training frequencies.

This cross-sectional study compared the physical fitness and mental health status of 140 school-age children who participated in sport-specific training with 180 age-matched peers. All the participants were grouped by sport-specific training frequencies in extracurricular time into the following: (i) high sports training frequency group (HFG): training three to five times per week (n = 77, mean [SD] age: 9.60 [0.12] years); (ii) low sports training frequency group (LFG): training once per week (n = 63, mean [SD] age: 9.88 [0.14] years); and (iii) control group (CG): maintaining routine life (n = 180, mean (SD) age: 9.77(0.09) years). Physical fitness status, including body composition (body mass index), endurance (vital capacity; 50 × 8 round trip), speed and agility (50 m sprint), flexibility (sit-and-reach), coordination (1-min rope skipping), and core strength (1-min sit-ups) as well as mental health status was measured. Overall, the results showed that Grade 3 to 4 HFG students showed better total physical fitness scores than the LFG and CG students. Grade 2 and 5 participants in the three groups showed no significant difference in the total physical fitness score. Children in HFG performed better in several PF indicators (i.e., cardiopulmonary function, flexibility, core strength, and coordination) than those in LFG and CG, and children in LFG got a higher score than those in CG on a testing item of 1-min rope skipping. The mental health test results showed that HFG performed better than LFG and CG. The results indicated that participating in sport-specific training 3-5 times per week was beneficial for children's physical and mental health. Additionally, there was a weak and negative correlation between physical fitness and mental health in LFG and CG, while no correlation was found between physical fitness and mental health in HFG.