The executive brain of the athlete: Examining the effects of fast decision-making and problem-solving on the field on the development of executive functioning

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Imagine a soccer game. A player is driving the ball aiming at a goal; players from both teams surround her, moving positions fast. She is facing several scenarios with contingencies that are shifting: one involves passing the ball to one of two teammates she could aim for; another involves attempting the goal herself but the distance would take some risks. Her brain is computing, making decisions and problem solving by adjusting her actions to gain time. She selects the player, aims and makes a successful pass. They score. This executive manoeuvre has been repeated thousands of times in her career, and unbeknownst to her, her brain is changing, benefiting from the experience. In this context, converging evidence has demonstrated benefits of exercise to a set of neurological-based cognitive control processes, collectively known as executive function', which is essential to navigate our environment, problem-solve and decision-make, and which plays an important role in academic and job performance.******There are at least three main pathways by which exercise has an enhancing effect on executive function: First, the neurophysiological changes induced by exercise, including up-regulation of naturally occurring brain substances capable of stimulating neuronal growth and brain plasticity; second, the gains in cardiovascular capacity, which enhances the efficiency with which oxygen and nutrients are supplied to the brain, facilitating the provision of energy for neuronal activity and resulting in benefits to cognition; and there is a possible third pathway that has not been examined, and it relates to the executive demands inherent to the type of sport (e.g., strategic, flexible decision-making in team-based sports vs. individual sports characterized by focused attention on endurance). This program of research aims to evaluate those pathways in an innovative manner, by: (1) examining how type of sport as well as cardiovascular capacity moderate the effect of exercise on executive functioning, (2) building from my previous NSERC Discovery team Grant, comparing trial-to-trial and semester-to-semester variability patterns in executive functions task performance and behaviour between athletes and sedentary controls, (3) examining within-person changes of neurophysiological markers of brain function over time in adolescent athletes versus their non-athlete peers; adolescence being a critical period for executive functioning development, (4) implementing a sports-based physical activity program to examine the long-terms effects on executive functioning, and (5) given that cumulative evidence has shown that intergenerational transmission (parent to child transmission of executive abilities), gender, and socioeconomic status play a role in executive function development, this proposal includes examination of these variables. Such longitudinal and programmatic research will provide multimodal evidence of the effects of long-term exercise on executive functioning.