Clinical Research Directory

Sports-Based Cognitive Game Program and Attention in Athletes

This study examined whether a 12-week sports-based cognitive game program improves selective attention and changes resting frontal brain-wave activity in physically active university students. One hundred active students (18-23 years) at Düzce University completed baseline tests and were then randomly assigned by computer to an experimental group (n = 50) or a control group (n = 50). The experimental group took part in a basketball-based cognitive game program twice a week for 12 weeks (24 sessions, about 45 minutes each). The games required participants to respond to visual and verbal signals with specific movements, to remember and update information, and to make quick decisions, with difficulty increasing over the 12 weeks. The control group received no program and continued their daily lives. Selective attention was measured with the d2 Attention Test, and resting brain-wave activity was measured with a single EEG electrode at the frontal midline (Fz) as the theta/beta ratio. Both measurements were taken before and after the 12-week period. Participants in the experimental group who missed more than two sessions were excluded from the analysis.