Sports Participation & Childhood Neurocognitive Development

Overview

Journal Dev Cogn Neurosci

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2024 Dec 31

PMID 39740341

Authors

Fu-Miao Tan

Junhong Yu

Alicia M Goodwill

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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.

References

Schmithorst V, Wilke M, Dardzinski B, Holland S . Cognitive functions correlate with white matter architecture in a normal pediatric population: a diffusion tensor MRI study. Hum Brain Mapp. 2005; 26(2):139-47. PMC: 1859842. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20149. View

Hallquist M, Hwang K, Luna B . The nuisance of nuisance regression: spectral misspecification in a common approach to resting-state fMRI preprocessing reintroduces noise and obscures functional connectivity. Neuroimage. 2013; 82:208-25. PMC: 3759585. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.116. View

Krafft C, Pierce J, Schwarz N, Chi L, Weinberger A, Schaeffer D . An eight month randomized controlled exercise intervention alters resting state synchrony in overweight children. Neuroscience. 2013; 256:445-55. PMC: 3995346. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.09.052. View

Gordon E, Laumann T, Adeyemo B, Huckins J, Kelley W, Petersen S . Generation and Evaluation of a Cortical Area Parcellation from Resting-State Correlations. Cereb Cortex. 2014; 26(1):288-303. PMC: 4677978. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu239. View

Casey B, Tottenham N, Liston C, Durston S . Imaging the developing brain: what have we learned about cognitive development?. Trends Cogn Sci. 2005; 9(3):104-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2005.01.011. View

Ciria L, Roman-Caballero R, Vadillo M, Holgado D, Luque-Casado A, Perakakis P . An umbrella review of randomized control trials on the effects of physical exercise on cognition. Nat Hum Behav. 2023; 7(6):928-941. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01554-4. View

Voss M, Chaddock L, Kim J, Vanpatter M, Pontifex M, Raine L . Aerobic fitness is associated with greater efficiency of the network underlying cognitive control in preadolescent children. Neuroscience. 2011; 199:166-76. PMC: 3237764. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.10.009. View

Sowell E, Thompson P, Leonard C, Welcome S, Kan E, Toga A . Longitudinal mapping of cortical thickness and brain growth in normal children. J Neurosci. 2004; 24(38):8223-31. PMC: 6729679. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1798-04.2004. View

Acs P, Veress R, Rocha P, Doczi T, Raposa B, Baumann P . Criterion validity and reliability of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Hungarian short form against the RM42 accelerometer. BMC Public Health. 2021; 21(Suppl 1):381. PMC: 8062944. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10372-0. View

10.

Giordano G, Gomez-Lopez M, Alesi M . Sports, Executive Functions and Academic Performance: A Comparison between Martial Arts, Team Sports, and Sedentary Children. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021; 18(22). PMC: 8622860. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182211745. View

11.

Chaddock-Heyman L, Erickson K, Kienzler C, Drollette E, Raine L, Kao S . Physical Activity Increases White Matter Microstructure in Children. Front Neurosci. 2019; 12:950. PMC: 6305717. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00950. View

12.

Lopez-Vicente M, Tiemeier H, Wildeboer A, Muetzel R, Verhulst F, Jaddoe V . Cortical Structures Associated With Sports Participation in Children: A Population-Based Study. Dev Neuropsychol. 2017; 42(2):58-69. DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2017.1309654. View

13.

Hawkins K, Dean D, Pearlson G . Alternative forms of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test: a review. Behav Neurol. 2005; 15(3-4):99-107. PMC: 5488610. DOI: 10.1155/2004/940191. View

14.

Chaddock L, Erickson K, Prakash R, Kim J, Voss M, Vanpatter M . A neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume, and memory performance in preadolescent children. Brain Res. 2010; 1358:172-83. PMC: 3953557. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.08.049. View

15.

Destrieux C, Fischl B, Dale A, Halgren E . Automatic parcellation of human cortical gyri and sulci using standard anatomical nomenclature. Neuroimage. 2010; 53(1):1-15. PMC: 2937159. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.06.010. View

16.

Zhao W, Makowski C, Hagler D, Garavan H, Thompson W, Greene D . Task fMRI paradigms may capture more behaviorally relevant information than resting-state functional connectivity. Neuroimage. 2023; 270:119946. PMC: 11037888. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119946. View

17.

Auchter A, Hernandez Mejia M, Heyser C, Shilling P, Jernigan T, Brown S . A description of the ABCD organizational structure and communication framework. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018; 32:8-15. PMC: 6462277. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.04.003. View

18.

Chakraborty S, Suryavanshi C, Nayak K . Cognitive function and heart rate variability in open and closed skill sports. Ann Med. 2023; 55(2):2267588. PMC: 10572042. DOI: 10.1080/07853890.2023.2267588. View

19.

Luciana M, Bjork J, Nagel B, Barch D, Gonzalez R, Nixon S . Adolescent neurocognitive development and impacts of substance use: Overview of the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) baseline neurocognition battery. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018; 32:67-79. PMC: 6039970. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.02.006. View

20.

Valkenborghs S, Noetel M, Hillman C, Nilsson M, Smith J, Ortega F . The Impact of Physical Activity on Brain Structure and Function in Youth: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics. 2019; 144(4). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2018-4032. View