Level of play and coach-rated game intelligence are related to performance on design fluency in elite soccer players

Executive brain functions are innate mechanisms for regulating behavior. While the impact of suboptimal executive functions has been characterized in patients, their contribution to individual success has not been elucidated. We set out to understand how executive functions relate to successful human behavior by examining their relation to game intelligence in sport - the ability to read a game and quickly adapt the behavior. In elite soccer players (n = 51), those playing in national teams (national team players) significantly outperformed those only playing at premier league level (premier league players) in Design Fluency (DF), a complex visuo-spatial executive function test that includes measures of creativity and cognitive flexibility. Their result showed a moderate correlation with coach rated game intelligence, also when correcting for low level cognitive capacity and was most evident when considering cognitive flexibility. DF capacity also correlated with number of assists made ...执行性大脑功能（Executive brain functions）是调控个体行为的先天生理机制。尽管学界已针对患者群体阐明了亚最优执行性大脑功能所产生的影响，但此类功能对个体成就的贡献仍未得到系统阐释。本研究旨在通过探究执行性大脑功能与运动赛场博弈智能——即解读赛场局势并快速调整自身行为的能力——之间的关联，阐明二者与人类成功行为的内在联系。在样本量为51的精英足球运动员群体中，国家队球员（national team players）在设计流畅性测试（Design Fluency, DF）中的表现显著优于仅效力于顶级联赛的球员（premier league players）；该测试属于复杂视觉空间执行性功能测评工具，涵盖创造力与认知灵活性相关指标。研究结果显示，即便在校正基础认知能力的影响后，DF得分仍与教练评定的赛场博弈智能呈中等程度相关，且该关联在考量认知灵活性维度时最为显著。此外，DF能力还与球员的助攻数呈正相关……