Sports participation & childhood neurocognitive development

Various psychosocial factors like collaboration inherent to team sports might provide a more dynamic environment for cognitive challenges that could foster enhanced neurocognitive development compared to individual sports. We investigated the impact of different organised sports on neurocognitive development in children (N = 11,878; aged 9-11) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Participants were classified into four categories based on their sports involvement at baseline and two years later: none, individual-based, team-based, or both. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted on 11 cognitive tests and neuroimaging metrics (i.e., resting-state functional connectivity and various grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) measurements) between sport groups. A comparison between team and individual sports yielded no significant differences in cognitive measures at baseline and follow-up. Similarly, although WM microstructural differences were significant, the effect size was small. However, participation in any sport at baseline was associated with superior performance in various cognitive domains (i.e. inhibition, processing speed, and others), greater subcortical GM volume (i.e. cerebellum cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and others), and whole-brain WM integrity compared to non-participants. Results suggest a positive association between organised sports participation, specifically individual and team-based sports, and neurocognitive development. However, further investigation is warranted to determine the nuanced effects of different sports on neurocognitive development.