About this Research Topic

Background

Physical activity and sport play an important role in enhancing cognitive functions. In the last decade, the relationship between physical activity and sports and executive functions has been intensively explored. The effects of physical activity and sports were examined considering acute or chronic effects on executive functions in different populations. However, there are open questions about how a single session elicits short-term effects or how training programs aimed at sustained improvement of executive functions should be planned and implemented. Recent research has shown that certain types of exercise and sport have specific effects on executive functions such as inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. A specific, longstanding, current topic is how sport-specific training, cognitive training, high sport expertise, and executive functions are interrelated resulting in high interest in sport-specific diagnostics for executive functions in recent years. Recent research indicates that emotional processes have a significant impact on executive functions in mentally and physically demanding situations and thus should be considered in future research. To bring more clarity to research on certain effects of components of executive functions, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying acute and chronic effects should be further developed.

The aim of this Research Topic is to publish original articles and reviews that address, as a central element, aspects related to the main topic of "executive functions and sport, physical exercise and activity". Methodological approaches can be broad and include quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. The focus group includes the entire life span, people from different walks of life, and people with different skills and abilities in the motor and cognitive domain. Therefore, we aim to pool a wide range of studies with different theoretical and methodological approaches that consider different populations. We cordially invite you to submit manuscripts that make a conceptual, methodological, empirical, or related contribution to this Research Topic.

We encourage you to submit papers on the following topics:
(a) Relationship between motor competence and/or fundamental motor skills and components of executive functions (inhibition, shifting and working memory)
(b) Short term effects of specific types of exercise and sports on components of executive functions
(c) Chronic effects of specific types of exercise and sports on components of executive functions
(d) Relationships between components of executive functions and sports performance
(e) Sport specific diagnostics of components of executive functions
(f) Psychophysiological research on the relationship between exercise and sport and components of executive functions
(g) Other topics related to physical activity /sport and executive functions

Keywords: Executive Functions in Sports, executive functions, physical activity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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