Behavioral And Electrophysiological Study On Proactive Inhibitory Control Of Table Tennis Players

Objective: This study explored the proactive inhibitory control of table tennis players,to reveal the relationship between their RT superiority and proactive inhibitory control.Methods :1)In experiment 1,simple cue-target detection tasks with 0% and 50% cue occurrence probabilities were performed respectively.The RTs measured in different conditions between 40 table tennis players and 40 non-athletes were compared,to estimate the approximate time required for disinhibition in both groups.This experiment aimed to verify that the disinhibition time of table tennis players was shorter than that of the control group.2)In experiment 2,30 college students were recruited as participants.The probability of cue occurrence in the simple cue-target detection task was changed(0%,25%,50%,75%,and 100%)to manipulate the degree of proactive inhibitory control.Single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation(TMS)was used to measure the excitability of left primary motor cortex(M1)at 0,100,200,300 and 400 milliseconds after the cue presented.This experiment aimed to find a physiological marker that could reflect the degree of proactive inhibitory control,and to explore the relationship between the degree of inhibition and the time of disinhibition.3)In experiment 3,the degree of proactive inhibitory control invoked when the cue occurrence probability was 50% were compared between 16 table tennis players and 16 non-athletes.This experiment aimed to verify that the degree of proactive inhibitory control invoked by table tennis players was higher than that of the control group under the same situation.Results :1)In the task with 50% cue occurrence probability,table tennis players needed about 200 ms for disinhibition while the control group needed approximate 300 ms.2)The excitability of M1 measured 200 ms after cue presented could indirectly reflect the degree of proactive inhibitory control(i.e.,the higher the M1 excitability at this time point,the lower the degree of inhibition).Usually,the higher the degree of proactive inhibitory control,the longer the disinhibition time.3)In the task with 50% cue occurrence probability,the M1 excitability of table tennis players measured at 200 ms was significantly lower than that of the control group.Conclusion: Under the same situation,table tennis players invoked higher degree of proactive inhibitory control than non-athletes,but their disinhibition time was relatively short.We believed this may be because the speed of disinhibition of table tennis players was relatively faster,which may to some extent explain their RT superiority in some situations compared to non-athletes.