Neural mechanisms underlying the effects of open-skill and closed-skill sports on executive function

Executive function is a higher-order cognitive capacity that integrates planning, organization, impulse control, and emotional regulation, thereby exerting a direct influence on decision-making and behavioral regulation in daily contexts. This study recruited open-skill athletes, closed-skill athletes, and non-athletes and employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how different types of sport participation are associated with executive function. Participants completed the Stroop, task-switching, and N-back tasks to assess three core components of executive function: inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, thereby elucidating the underlying neural mechanisms. The behavioral results showed that open-skill athletes responded faster than non-athletes in both the task-switching and N-back tasks, while closed-skill athletes responded faster than non-athletes only in the N-back task. EEG results revealed that open-skill athletes exhibited smaller N2 amplitudes than non-athletes in the task-switching task. They also elicited larger P3 amplitudes than non-athletes in the Stroop task, and larger P3 amplitudes than both closed-skill athletes and non-athletes in the task-switching task. In the N-back task, both types of athletes elicited larger P3 amplitudes than non-athletes. Overall, athletes from different sport types exhibited task-specific behavioral and neuroelectric profiles during executive-function processing. Open-skill athletes showed faster responses in the task-switching and working-memory tasks, whereas closed-skill athletes showed a more selective pattern of faster responses in the working-memory task.