title: Visuospatial attention lateralization in volleyball players and in rowers.
abstract: In the present study, differences in visuospatial attention lateralization were evaluated in athletes engaged in open-compared to closed-skill sports and sedentary nonathletes. 23 volleyball players (open skill; Italian national level and regional level), 10 rowers (closed skill, Italian national level), and 23 sedentary participants responded to a computerized line-length judgment task. Five lines, differing in the length of their right and left segments, were randomly presented; the respondent made a forced-choice decision about the respective length of the two segments. Volleyball players responded significantly faster; those at the higher competitive level were also more accurate, making a statistically significantly lower number of leftward errors as compared with rowers and controls. If such responses are due to training rather than self-selection of ability, then the results may suggest the possibility of changing the distribution of visuospatial attention by training in open-skill sports.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neuroscience (BioNeC), University of Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giglia
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brighina
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zangla
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chiavetta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fierro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054874:Athletic Performance; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D012858:Size Perception; D013028:Space Perception; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D054798:Volleyball / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult