title: Open vs. closed skill sports and the modulation of inhibitory control.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inhibitory control, or the ability to suppress planned but inappropriate prepotent actions in the current environment, plays an important role in the control of human performance. Evidence from empirical studies utilizing a sport-specific design has shown that athletes have superior inhibitory control. However, less is known about whether this superiority might (1) still be seen in a general cognitive task without a sport-related context; (2) be modulated differentially by different sporting expertise (e.g., tennis versus swimming).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here we compared inhibitory control across tennis players, swimmers and sedentary non-athletic controls using a stop-signal task without a sport-specific design. Our primary finding showed that tennis players had shorter stop-signal reaction times (SSRTs) when compared to swimmers and sedentary controls, whereas no difference was found between swimmers and sedentary controls. Importantly, this effect was further confirmed after considering potential confounding factors (e.g., BMI, training experience, estimated levels of physical activity and VO2max), indicative of better ability to inhibit unrequired responses in tennis players.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This suggests that fundamental inhibitory control in athletes can benefit from open skill training. Sport with both physical and cognitive demands may provide a potential clinical intervention for those who have difficulties in inhibitory control.
authors: Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Chun-Hao
authors: CH
authors: Wang
authors: Che-Chien
authors: CC
authors: Chang
authors: Yen-Ming
authors: YM
authors: Liang
authors: Chun-Ming
authors: CM
authors: Shih
authors: Wen-Sheng
authors: WS
authors: Chiu
authors: Philip
authors: P
authors: Tseng
authors: Daisy L
authors: DL
authors: Hung
authors: Ovid J L
authors: OJ
authors: Tzeng
authors: Neil G
authors: NG
authors: Muggleton
authors: Chi-Hung
authors: CH
authors: Juan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D013715:Tennis / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult