Sport as cognition enhancer from childhood to young adulthood: a systematic review focused on sport modality

ABSTRACT

This systematic review aims to synthesise the cognitive effects of different sports. The major novelty is represented by a nuanced distinction of sport modalities beyond the open–closed skills dichotomy and a focus on interventional research to address causality linking sport practice to transient and longer-lasting cognitive outcomes in acute and chronic sport intervention designs, respectively. Four research databases (Web of Science, PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, and SportDiscus) were searched for studies reporting on acute and chronic interventions focused on sports and performed with participants between 6 and 25 years old. A total of 30 studies met our inclusion criteria. Overall, single bouts of sport-based activities and extended sports training interventions generate benefits in various cognitive outcome domains. Such benefits vary among cognitive outcomes and between acute and chronic designs, depending on the specific sport modality.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport modality
• cognition
• executive functions
• acute effect
• chronic effect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been supported by grants awarded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Andalusia Operational Programme 2014-2020 (Spanish Research Agency); SEJ-746-UGR20 "Effect of the manipulation of contextual variables of physical exercise on mental load and cognitive, emotional and athletic performance" and Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [Grant FPU19/06224] and Spanish Ministry of Universities [Grant FPU20/02022].