Dancers and fastball sports athletes have different spatial visual attention styles.

Physical exercise and the training effects of repeated practice of skills over an extended period of time may have additive effects on brain networks and functions. Various motor skills and attentional styles can be developed by athletes engaged in different sports. In this study, the effects of fast ball sports and dance training on attention were investigated by event related potentials (ERP). ERP were recorded in auditory and visual tasks in professional dancer, professional fast ball sports athlete (FBSA) and healthy control volunteer groups consisting of twelve subjects each. In the auditory task both dancer and FBSA groups have faster N200 (N2) and P300 (P3) latencies than the controls. In the visual task FBSA have faster latencies of P3 than the dancers and controls. They also have higher P100 (P1) amplitudes to non-target stimuli than the dancers and controls. On the other hand, dancers have faster latencies of P1 and higher N100 (N1) amplitude to non-target stimuli and they also have higher P3 amplitudes than the FBSA and controls. Overall exercise has positive effects on cognitive processing speed as reflected on the faster auditory N2 and P3 latencies. However, FBSA and dancers differed on attentional styles in the visual task. Dancers displayed predominantly endogenous/top down features reflected by increased N1 and P3 amplitudes, decreased P1 amplitude and shorter P1 latency. On the other hand, FBSA showed predominantly exogenous/bottom up processes revealed by increased P1 amplitude. The controls were in between the two groups.

The effects of interstimulus interval on sensory gating and on preattentive auditory memory in the oddball paradigm. Can magnitude of the sensory gating affect preattentive auditory comparison process?

P50, and mismatch negativity (MMN) are components of event-related potentials (ERP) reflecting sensory gating and preattentive auditory memory, respectively. Interstimulus interval (ISI) is an important determinant of the amplitudes of these components and N1. In the present study the interrelation between stimulus gating and preattentive auditory sensory memory were investigated as a function of ISI in 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5s in 15 healthy volunteered participants. ISI factor affected the N1 peak amplitude significantly. MMN amplitude in 2.5s ISI was significantly smaller compared to 1.5 and 3.5s ISI. ISI X stimuli interaction on P50 amplitude was statistically significant. P50 amplitudes to deviant stimuli in 2.5s ISI were larger than the P50 amplitudes in other ISIs. P50 difference (P50d) waveform amplitude correlated significantly with MMN amplitude. The results suggest that: (i) auditory sensory gating could affect preattentive auditory sensory memory by supplying input to the comparator mechanism; (ii) 2.5s ISI is important in displaying the sensory gating and preattentive auditory sensory memory relation.

Effects of cold stress on early and late stimulus gating.

The P50 component of the event-related potential (ERP) mainly reflects early pre-attentional processing. Along with P50, the N100 component and mismatch negativity (MMN) were postulated to represent a complex multistage and multi-component gating system. If some variable threshold or gating is exceeded by the MMN signal, the MMN is often followed by a relatively sharp fronto-central positive wave, the P3a component, which reflects an attentional switch to an environmental change. The P50 was shown to be affected by mental and cold stress, and the P3a amplitude was shown to be increased by the anticipation of threat. The aim of this study is to examine concurrently the early and late ERP indices of gating during acute stress. The ERPs to auditory stimuli in a passive oddball paradigm were recorded in 15 normal subjects during the cold pressor test and a control condition. The cold pressor test diminished P50 gating, increased N100 amplitude, elicited P3a responses and had no significant effect on MMN. Transient stress could impair early sensory gating and the ability to ignore irrelevant information that can cause passive attention switches indexed by the P3a component.