The impact of soccer-specific psychophysiological stress on inhibition and cognitive flexibility in elite youth players

Abstract

While researchers and practitioners attribute an essential role to executive functions (EFs) for soccer performance, the usefulness of respective diagnostics and the predictive value remain unclear. One limitation restricting the translation and relevance of study results to improve actual game performance is the insufficient consideration of competitive conditions. Thus, this study aimed to conduct soccer-specific cognitive diagnostics under a soccer-specific psychophysiological stress condition, mimicing the demands of a competitive game. A total of 92 (Mage = 15.17, SDage = 1.45) youth elite players performed tests for inhibition (flanker task) or cognitive flexibility (number-letter task) with a soccer-specific motor response (i.e., pass into goals). After a pre-test in a neutral condition, players were randomly assigned to a neutral (moderate soccer-specific exercise) or a stress condition (physical stress and competitive instructions and filming for psychological stress). Objective (i.e., cortisol, heart rate variability) and subjective stress-related measures (i.e., SAM, VAS) were assessed six times throughout experimental procedure. Analyses revealed significant interaction effects between time and condition for all objective and subjective variables indicating a successful experimental stress induction. For cognitive performance, results revealed significant main effects of time, but no significant interaction effects between time and condition. However, descriptive statistics suggested improved performance under stress, with decreased flanker effect and switch costs. Additionally, response time variability in the flanker task significantly decreased in the stress condition. These findings offer insights into individual stress perception and processing under game-related psychophysiological demands, expanding previous research on situational EF alterations that also hold relevance for applied practitioners.