title: Sport is not always healthy: Executive brain dysfunction in professional boxers.
abstract: We measured ERPs of professional boxers in a Go/No-Go task, comparing them to fencers and non-athletes. Results showed that fencing improved attention and motor response control, but boxing did not. More strikingly, in boxers, as in brain trauma patients, the P3 component was delayed and reduced. The P3 delay of boxers was correlated with the amount of performed sport exercise. Furthermore, in terms of behavior, boxers showed increased intra-individual variability and switch cost. Results were consistent with the hypothesis of specific impairment at the level of response inhibition processing. We suggest that this impairment is derived from the cumulative effect of blows to the head. The changes found in boxers suggest that ERPs and reaction times may be a tool for early detection of specific brain dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education Sciences for Motor Activity and Sport, University of Rome Foro Italico, 00194 Rome, Italy. francesco.dirusso@iusm.it
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Russo
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spinelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001914:Boxing / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time