Cross-sectional differences in inhibitory control between adolescent badminton trainees and age-matched non-athletes:...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Sports Science
• Adolescent Development

Background:

• Inhibitory control is crucial for adolescent development, impacting academics, emotional regulation, and social adjustment.
• Open-skill sports like badminton are hypothesized to offer greater cognitive benefits than closed-skill activities.
• Empirical evidence on the cognitive benefits of badminton in adolescents is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of amateur badminton training on inhibitory control in adolescents.
• To examine the relationship between training duration/frequency and inhibitory control performance.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional design comparing 32 adolescent badminton trainees (12-15 years) with 30 age-matched controls.
• Utilized an arrow-version Flanker task to assess inhibitory control.
• Statistical analyses included independent-samples t-tests, Bayes factors, mixed ANOVA, mixed-effects models, and Pearson correlations.

Main Results:

• Badminton trainees exhibited significantly smaller Flanker conflict effects (reaction time and error rate) compared to controls.
• Training duration showed a negative correlation with the reaction time conflict effect and incongruent condition reaction time.
• Weekly training frequency also showed a negative association with conflict effects, though with lower statistical power.

Conclusions:

• Adolescent badminton trainees demonstrate enhanced inhibitory control compared to their non-exercising peers.
• The findings support the open-skill exercise hypothesis, suggesting badminton participation is associated with superior inhibitory control.
• While causality cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional study, the results warrant further investigation through longitudinal and randomized controlled trials.