Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether visuo-spatial working memory in undergraduate females is affected by badminton training. In this study thirteen female undergraduate students (aged 19.07±2.10 years) were considered as control group and sex-matched thirteen students (aged 20.46±2.26 years) were considered as exercise group. Both groups performed a visuo-spatial working memory task, which intermingles non-delayed and 1.5-sec delayed conditions while behavior and event-related potential (ERP) data were measured. The reaction time of the exercise group was faster compared to the control group, in both conditions. During the encoding stage of the 1.5-sec delayed condition, P3 amplitude was larger at Cz but not at other electrodes in the exercise group. During the response phase in both conditions, the exercise group had faster N1 latency, larger N2 amplitude, and faster N2-RT interval, but no difference in P3 data was found when compared to the control group. In addition, no reliable difference for the contingent negative variation (CNV) data at the delayed stage was observed between the both groups. In terms of ERP, females in the exercise group can activate more anterior-posterior neural networks during the encoding stage, and have faster early perceptual function, larger attention for stimulus classification, and faster cognitive-to-motor transfer during the response stage. We concluded that the undergraduate females regularly engaging in badminton training have beneficial effect on the behavioral performance. However, no such a beneficial effect appeared in the later cognitive function. Future research efforts are necessary to address the effect of badminton training on the behavioral performance and neural mechanisms in the higher level athletes.