Electroencephalographic and cognitive task analysis of working memory and attention in athletes: A systematic review

IF 3.3 2区心理学 Q2 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

Psychology of Sport and Exercise Pub Date : 2025-07-02 DOI:10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102930

Pedro Delgado , Pedro Passos , Francisco Tavares , Hugo Alexandre Ferreira

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study aimed to systematically review the current research on the cognitive ability of athletes, specifically, in working memory, attention, problem-solving and decision-making tasks. The objective was to examine the differences in cognitive abilities between athletes and non-athletes, and between athletes from different sports. To this end, a search was conducted on PubMed and Scopus for original articles published before November 28th, 2023, that used electroencephalography (EEG) in sports or with athletes engaged in at least moderate-intensity activities, evaluated healthy adults or children through case-control studies, and analyzed at least one of four cognitive tasks (working memory, attention, problem-solving and decision-making). The risk of bias and quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The following results were extracted from the included studies: population; publishing year; type of sport; type of controls (athletes or general population); cognitive task results; brain wave frequencies analyzed; and brain wave components analyzed. Following the review of 697 studies, 35 met the inclusion criteria. Most studies reported that athletes outperformed controls in cognitive tasks, both in terms of accuracy and reaction time. Individual sports showed better performances, and martial arts and boxing showed good reaction times but poor accuracies. Increased cortical activity was also observed in athletes when compared with controls. Despite some limitations – primarily the number of studies performing sport-specific tasks or comparing the athletes with less experienced counterparts - results indicate a clear over-performance in cognitive tasks by athletes compared to controls, as well as definitive cognitive differences between different sports.

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运动员工作记忆和注意力的脑电图和认知任务分析：系统回顾。

本研究旨在系统回顾目前关于运动员认知能力的研究，特别是在工作记忆、注意力、问题解决和决策任务方面。目的是研究运动员和非运动员之间，以及不同运动项目的运动员之间认知能力的差异。为此，我们在PubMed和Scopus上检索了2023年11月28日之前发表的原创文章，这些文章使用脑电图（EEG）进行运动或从事至少中等强度活动的运动员，通过病例对照研究评估健康成人或儿童，并分析了四种认知任务（工作记忆、注意力、解决问题和决策）中的至少一种。偏倚风险和质量评估采用纽卡斯尔-渥太华量表进行。从纳入的研究中提取的结果如下：人群；出版;运动类型；对照类型（运动员或一般人群）；认知任务结果；分析脑电波频率；并对脑电波成分进行分析。在对697项研究进行审查后，有35项研究符合纳入标准。大多数研究报告称，运动员在认知任务中的表现优于对照组，无论是在准确性还是反应时间上。个人项目表现较好，武术和拳击反应时间较好，但准确性较差。与对照组相比，运动员的大脑皮层活动也有所增加。尽管存在一些局限性——主要是进行特定运动任务的研究数量或将运动员与经验不足的运动员进行比较——但结果表明，与对照组相比，运动员在认知任务中的表现明显优于对照组，以及不同运动之间的认知差异。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychology of Sport and Exercise 医学-心理学

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

5.90%

发文量

172

审稿时长

69 days

期刊介绍： Psychology of Sport and Exercise is an international forum for scholarly reports in the psychology of sport and exercise, broadly defined. The journal is open to the use of diverse methodological approaches. Manuscripts that will be considered for publication will present results from high quality empirical research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, commentaries concerning already published PSE papers or topics of general interest for PSE readers, protocol papers for trials, and reports of professional practice (which will need to demonstrate academic rigour and go beyond mere description). The CONSORT guidelines consort-statement need to be followed for protocol papers for trials; authors should present a flow diagramme and attach with their cover letter the CONSORT checklist. For meta-analysis, the PRISMA prisma-statement guidelines should be followed; authors should present a flow diagramme and attach with their cover letter the PRISMA checklist. For systematic reviews it is recommended that the PRISMA guidelines are followed, although it is not compulsory. Authors interested in submitting replications of published studies need to contact the Editors-in-Chief before they start their replication. We are not interested in manuscripts that aim to test the psychometric properties of an existing scale from English to another language, unless new validation methods are used which address previously unanswered research questions.