| 英文摘要 |
Background: Motor preparation plays an important role in daily human behavior, in particular for sport performance. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether tennis players can outperform non-athletes on a motor preparation task. This study adopted a variable foreperiod paradigm to address this issue. In addition, we further examined whether the superior motor preparation in athletes could lead to better other cognitive function (e.g., response inhibition). Therefore, we combined the Go/Nogo and the variable foreperiod design to better understand the complex relationship across athletic experience, motor preparation and cognitive functions. Methods: This study recruited 24 young adults aged 19 to 28 years. Of these, 12 participants were members of the university tennis team, while the other 12 participants belonged to non-athletic students. Results: The findings revealed that tennis players showed better performance in the trials with higher temporal uncertainty in the Simple Go condition. In addition, the tennis players exhibited smaller foreperiod effect. However, such effects were not found in the Go/Nogo condition. Conclusions: Based on the present findings, we suggested that young adults engaging in long-term tennis training might be less affected by temporal uncertainty, resulting in better motor preparation. However, such superiority might be absent when performing a higher cognitive function. The reasons for this may be due to the fact that the athletic superiority in cognitive functioning would be weaken when performing two cognitive processes simultaneously while using the same brain area. Future research is recommended, to include in design larger sample sizes, different athletic expertise levels, different gender or age populations, and other variables related to cognition such as physical fitness. |
