Author(s): RAMYARANGSI, P., SIRIPORNPANICH, V.1, NANBANCHA, A.1, POKAISASAWAN, A.2, AJJIMAPORN, A.1, Institution: MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY, Country: THAILAND, Abstract-ID: 505

Introduction
The significance of the visual system and the specific acquisition of visual skills for enhancing athletic performance is paramount in elite sport (Erickson, 2020). Sports, such as gymnastics, football, and eSports, may necessitate equally unique visual abilities. As such, research has placed an increasing emphasis on better understanding the nuances of visual cognition in athletes across different sports. The purpose of this investigation was to examine and contrast the characteristics of the P300 evoked potential elicited by a visual oddball paradigm (visual P300 ERP) and visual working memory among elite athletes from three distinct sports.

Methods
A total of 42 athletes across three sports participated in the study. Of these, fourteen were gymnasts (age: 20±1 yrs, BMI: 22.0±1.5 kg/m2), fourteen were footballers (age: 21±1 yrs, BMI: 20.8±2.5 kg/m2), and fourteen were eSports athletes (age: 21±2 yrs, BMI: 21.5±3.3 kg/m2). Participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and right-hand dominance and undertook the visual P300 ERP using electroencephalography and used the Gorilla.sc experiment builder program to evaluate visual working memory (n1-back and n2-back). Data analysis among the three athlete groups was performed using a one-way ANOVA. The Bonferroni post hoc test was used for pairwise comparisons.

Results
Results revealed notable differences among the athlete types in visual P300 ERP. The eSports group demonstrated a significantly longer P300 latency than the gymnastic group (p=0.01) at the midline Frontopolar site of electrodes, but there were no differences in amplitude. In addition, both the eSports (p=0.03) and gymnastic (p=0.04) groups exhibited a superior percentage of correct responses in visual ERP compared to the football group. Regarding mean visual ERP reaction time, the eSports group exhibited significantly longer durations than both the soccer (p<0.01) and gymnastic (p<0.01) groups. Moreover, the mean reaction time of the soccer group was significantly longer than the gymnastic group (p<0.01). There were no differences among the groups for the visual working memory task.

Discussion and Conclusion
These findings demonstrate that the visual P300 ERP observations in athletes are different contingent on the type of sport. In doing so, it adds further credence to the notion of sport-specific characteristics in visual attention. Future research that takes into consideration how the specific training regimens and cognitive demands of different sports influence visual processing might yield further valuable insights that would add to the knowledge base.

Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the NRCT: NRCT5-RGJ63012-129

References
1) Erickson GB. Sports vision: vision care for the enhancement of sports performance. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2020 Nov 24.