Mental tests may predict top sporting skills

• Autores: Nicole Wetsman
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3115, 2017, pág. 16
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Executive functioning describes unconscious mental abilities, such as working memory, which helps handle information to make decisions, and attentional control, which is the ability to choose what to ignore. Torbjorn Vestberg at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and his team have assessed these abilities in 49 players under the age of 20 at an elite soccer academy in Sweden. The tests included the trail making test which measures the brain's processing speed, visual search speed and mental flexibility, by getting people to draw lines between ascending numbers spread, randomly on a page. Even after controlling for factors that could affect performance on the field, the athletes who had higher executive function scores netted more goals over a two-year period