Effects of Non-Sport-Specific Versus Sport-Specific Training on Physical Performance and Perceptual Response in Young Football Players

This study aimed to compare the effects of non-sport-specific and sport-specific training methods on physical performance and perceptual response in young football players. Seventy-nine under 11 participants were selected and assigned to non-sport-specific (NSSG), sport-specific (SSG), and control (CNTG) groups. The NSSG training protocol consisted of combined stimuli based on balance, agility, and jump rope drills. The SSG training protocol included technical exercises, defensive and offensive game-based drills, and a small-sided game. The CNTG included the participants not taking part in any sport training. All participants were tested for general motor coordination (Harre test), dynamic balance (Lower Quarter Y-balance test), and dribbling before and after 10 weeks of training (NSSG and SSG) or habitual activity (CNTG). At post-intervention, perceived enjoyment was requested by the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES). A two-way repeated measure analysis of covariance was used to detect interactions and main effects of time and groups controlling for baseline values. Whereas, a one-way analysis of variance was used to evaluate PACES-related differences between groups. NSSG gained greater improvements (p < 0.05) compared with SSG in the Harre and Lower Quarter Y-balance tests, while dribbling skills improved similarly in both groups. Regarding PACES, NSSG and SSG presented a comparable perceived enjoyment. These findings suggest that a 10-week non-sport-specific training is an enjoyable practice capable to promote greater improvements in general motor coordination and dynamic balance compared with sport-specific training in youth football players. This can occur without impairment of football-specific skills.

Atypical context-dependent speech processing in autism

The ability to take contextual information into account is essential for successful speech processing. This study examines individuals with high-functioning autism and those without in terms of how they adjust their perceptual expectation while discriminating speech sounds in different phonological contexts. Listeners were asked to discriminate pairs of sibilant-vowel monosyllables. Typically, discriminability of sibilants increases when the sibilants are embedded in perceptually enhancing contexts (if the appropriate context-specific perceptual adjustment were performed) and decreases in perceptually diminishing contexts. This study found a reduction in the differences in perceptual response across enhancing and diminishing contexts among high-functioning autistic individuals relative to the neurotypical controls. The reduction in perceptual expectation adjustment is consistent with an increase in autonomy in low-level perceptual processing in autism and a reduction in the influence of top-down information from surrounding information.

Combined Effect of Number of Players and Dribbling on Game-Based-Drill Demands in Basketball

Purpose: To examine the physiological, physical, and technical demands of game-based drills (GBDs) with regular dribble (RD) or no dribble (ND) involving a different number of players (3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, and 5 vs 5). Methods: Ten regional-level male basketball players performed 6 full-court GBD formats (each consisting of 3 bouts of 4 min and 2 min rest) on multiple occasions. The physiological and perceptual responses were measured through heart rate and rating of perceived exertion. Video-based time–motion analysis was performed to assess the GBD physical demands. The frequencies of occurrence and the duration were calculated for high-intensity, moderate-intensity, low-intensity, and recovery activities. Technical demands were assessed with a notional-analysis technique. A 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to assess statistical differences between GBD formats. Results: A greater perceptual response (rating of perceived exertion) was recorded during 3 versus 3 than 5 versus 5 formats (P = .005). Significant interactions were observed for the number of recovery (P = .021), low-intensity activity (P = .007), and all movements (P = .001) completed. Greater time was spent performing low-intensity and high-intensity activities during RD than ND format. Greater technical demands were observed for several variables during 3 versus 3 than 4 versus 4 or 5 versus 5. A greater number of turnovers (P = .027), total (P ≤ .001), and correct passes (P ≤ .001) were recorded during ND than RD format. Conclusions: The number of players predominantly affected the perceptual response to GBD, while both the number of players and rule modification (RD vs ND) affected activities performed during GBD. Reducing the number of players increases the GBD technical elements, while ND format promotes a greater number of turnovers and passes.

Assessing Regional Sensitivity and Desensitization to Capsaicin Among Oral Cavity Mucosae

This study aimed to determine perceptual response differences and characterize desensitization to capsaicin over time across several oral cavity mucosae– the tongue, cheek, hard palate, and lip. For each region, subjects rated the intensity of capsaicin and a vehicle control over a 10-min period. Following a rest period, capsaicin was reapplied on each pretreated area and subjects indicated which side felt more irritated, then rated each side every 30 s over 3.5 min. Results from the initial task indicated significantly greater irritation on the tongue than hard palate, hard palate than cheek and lip, but no significant differences between the cheek and lip. Time to maximum intensity was delayed on the hard palate compared to the tongue, cheek, and lip. Desensitization, as indicated by a significant proportion of subjects choosing the vehicle-pretreated side over capsaicin-pretreated side as having stronger irritation, was exhibited on the tongue and hard palate but not the cheek and lip. Given these data, a secondary experiment that utilized a higher capsaicin concentration was conducted on the cheek and lip only. Results showed significantly higher overall irritation on the lip than the cheek. Desensitization was exhibited on both areas, although the extent was greater on the lip. Based on differences in sensitivity and the extent of desensitization among these areas, these results indicate that oral cavity mucosae respond to, but are impacted differently by, capsaicin exposure.

The Physiological, Neuromuscular, and Perceptual Response to Even- and Variable-Paced 10-km Cycling Time Trials

Background: During self-paced (SP) time trials (TTs), cyclists show unconscious nonrandom variations in power output of up to 10% above and below average. It is unknown what the effects of variations in power output of this magnitude are on physiological, neuromuscular, and perceptual variables. Purpose: To describe physiological, neuromuscular, and perceptual responses of 10-km TTs with an imposed even-paced (EP) and variable-paced (VP) workload. Methods: Healthy male, trained, task-habituated cyclists (N = 9) completed three 10-km TTs. First, an SP TT was completed, the mean workload from which was used as the mean workload of the EP and VP TTs. The EP was performed with an imposed even workload, while VP was performed with imposed variations in workload of ±10% of the mean. In EP and VP, cardiorespiratory, neuromuscular, and perceptual variables were measured. Results: Mean rating of perceived exertion was significantly lower in VP (6.13 [1.16]) compared with EP (6.75 [1.24]), P = .014. No mean differences were found for cardiorespiratory and almost all neuromuscular variables. However, differences were found at individual kilometers corresponding to power-output differences between pacing strategies. Conclusion: Variations in power output during TTs of ±10%, simulating natural variations in power output that are present during SP TTs, evoke minor changes in cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular responses and mostly affect the perceptual response. Rating of perceived exertion is lower when simulating natural variations in power output, compared with EP cycling. The imposed variations in workload seem to provide a psychological rather than a physiological or neuromuscular advantage.

Response selection modulates crowding: a cautionary tale for invoking top-down explanations

Object recognition in the periphery is limited by clutter. This phenomenon of visual crowding is ameliorated when the objects are dissimilar. This effect of inter-object similarity has been extensively studied for low-level features and is thought to reflect bottom-up processes. Recently, crowding was also found to be reduced when objects belonged to explicitly distinct groups; that is, crowding was weak when they had low group membership similarity. It has been claimed that top-down knowledge is necessary to explain this effect of group membership, implying that the effect of similarity on crowding cannot be a purely bottom-up process. We tested the claim that the effect of group membership relies on knowledge in two experiments and found that neither explicit knowledge about differences in group membership nor the possibility of acquiring knowledge about target identities is necessary to produce the effects. These results suggest that top-down processes need not be invoked to explain the effect of group membership. Instead, we suggest that differences in flanker reportability that emerge from the differences in group membership are the source of the effect. That is, when targets and flankers are sampled from distinct groups, flankers cannot be inadvertently reported, leading to fewer errors and hence weaker crowding. Further, we argue that this effect arises at the stage of response selection. This conclusion is well supported by an analytical model based on these principles. We conclude that previously observed effects in crowding attributed to top-down or higher level processes might instead be due to post-perceptual response selection strategies.