دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مشارکت ورزشی و هوشیاری در کودکان: تاثیر تجربه و تخصص های متفاوت ورزشی - الزویر 2017

Abstract

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between different types of sport expertise (externally-paced vs. self-paced sports) and vigilance performance in children by evaluating the cardiovascular fitness level of the participants. Methods: Three groups of children (11.0 ± 0.2 years) differentiated in terms of their regular sport participation (football players, n = 20; track and field athletes, n = 20; non-athletic controls, n = 20) took part in the study. In one session, participants performed the Leger Multi-stage fitness test to estimate their aerobic fitness level. In another session, participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) to evaluate their vigilance performance under 2 conditions of velocity demands (normal vs. speed). Results: The results revealed that both groups of sport practitioners had higher cardiovascular fitness than non-athlete controls. In contrast, no significant differences in the performance PVT were found between track and field athletes and controls. Crucially, football players showed better performance in the PVT than track and field athletes and controls. These between-group differences were not modulated by the speed demands of the task. Conclusion: The major novel finding of this research points to a positive relationship between sport participation and vigilance performance during childhood. We discuss our results in terms of the different hypotheses put forward in the literature to explain the relationship between regular exercise and cognitive functioning: the “cardiovascular fitness” and the “cognitive component skills” hypotheses.

5. Conclusion

Our novel findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the investigation of the relationship between exercise and cognitive processing during childhood. Our results suggest that vigilance performance might specially benefit from training in an externally-paced sport environment. Therefore, our findings together with previous research,41 suggest that a sport environment with both physical and cognitive demands may provide a stimulating context to enhance cognitive functioning during childhood. An important direction for further research is the investigation of exercise and sport environments that may provide clinical intervention for children with diffi- culties in vigilance performance, such as patients with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This line of research, supported by our findings here, should encourage public health system administrators to implement policies aimed to promote sport participation during childhood, inside and outside the school context.