Mind's Game: How Sports Boost Your Memory and Reflexes

Athletes rely not only on physical strength, but also on working memory to make quick decisions. Studies indicate that sports can improve this ability, especially when compared to sedentary people. This suggests that sports practice benefits not only the body, but also the brain.

High-level sports performance depends not only on the physical and technical ability of athletes, but also on the development and efficient use of cognitive functions, such as attention and decision-making.

During sports practice, the brain adapts, creating new connections and strengthening its structure, which improves cognitive functions. Regular exercise contributes to these improvements, while a sedentary lifestyle can impair cognition.

In recent years, studies have paid more attention to the role of working memory (WM) in sports. Working memory is a kind of “mental notepad” that allows temporary information to be stored and manipulated, helping athletes make quick decisions during games.

For example, soccer players need to constantly monitor the positions of teammates and opponents in order to plan their moves. To measure this ability, scientists use tests such as the N-back test.

The N-back test is a cognitive task used to measure working memory and attention span. During the test, participants see or hear a sequence of stimuli (such as letters, numbers, or pictures) and must identify when the current stimulus matches one presented N positions earlier in the sequence.

For example, in a 2-back test, if the sequence is A - B - C - A, the participant must recognize that the last "A" corresponds to the one that appeared two positions earlier. The test can vary in difficulty by increasing the value of N, requiring greater mental effort and activating areas of the brain associated with memory and cognitive control.

Studies show that athletes tend to perform better on sports-related working memory tasks. However, results on their advantage in general cognitive tasks (those that do not involve sports) are contradictory.

Some research suggests that sports practice can improve cognition broadly, while others suggest that the benefits are limited to the sports context. In addition, the type of sport practiced appears to influence the impact on working memory.

Athletes who play open-skill sports (such as soccer and basketball), which require constant adaptation to changes in the environment, may develop greater cognitive flexibility than those who play closed-skill sports (such as swimming or running).

To better understand this relationship, scientists analyzed several studies comparing the performance of athletes and non-athletes on working memory tests. The scientists gathered information from several scientific databases, such as PubMed and Scopus, which store research articles on human health and behavior involving 1,455 participants.

They searched for articles published up to January 29, 2024, with no restrictions on language or publication date. To find relevant studies, they used keywords such as “athletes” and “working memory.”

These words were combined with other related words, such as “players” and “memory capacity,” using a technique called Boolean operators, which helps refine the results. They also manually reviewed articles and references to ensure that nothing important was left out. Two experts reviewed all studies, and if there was disagreement, a third expert helped make the decision.

To ensure that the results were reliable, the researchers established rules for selecting studies. To be included, studies had to: Be original research with their own data collection; Compare groups of athletes and non-athletes; Assess working memory in a practical way, measuring accuracy or capacity; Include only healthy participants; Have been published in the last 20 years (between 2004 and 2024); and Be written in English.

They defined “athletes” as people who regularly practice competitive sports. “Non-athletes” were those who did not meet the minimum physical activity guidelines or practiced only recreationally, without a focus on competition.

The researchers excluded studies that:

- Had fewer than 10 participants in one of the groups.

- Involved e-sports (games) or chess players, as these do not require physical activity.

- Evaluated only the effects of temporary physical training.

The analysis showed that, overall, athletes have a slight advantage over non-athletes. However, this advantage is more evident when compared to sedentary individuals, suggesting that a lack of physical activity can impair cognitive function.

The research also looked at other factors that can influence working memory, such as age, level of sports experience and type of sport. Older athletes tend to benefit more from sports, as exercise helps reduce the cognitive decline associated with aging.

Aerobic sports, such as running and cycling, also appear to have a positive impact on working memory due to their relationship with brain health. On the other hand, high-impact sports, such as football and boxing, can carry a risk of brain injuries, which can negatively affect cognition.

Overall, the results reinforce the importance of sports practice not only for physical performance, but also for mental and cognitive health. Regular physical activity can be an effective strategy for keeping the brain healthy, especially in a world where sedentary lifestyles are increasingly prevalent.

READ MORE:

Comparison of working memory performance in athletes and non-athletes: a meta-analysis of behavioural studies

Chenxiao Wu, Chenyuan Zhang, Xueqiao Li, Chaoxiong Ye and Piia Astikainen

Memory. Volume 33, 2025 - Issue 2, Pages 259-277

DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2024.2423812

Abstract: 

The relationship between sports expertise and working memory (WM) has garnered increasing attention in experimental research. However, no meta-analysis has compared WM performance between athletes and non-athletes. This study addresses this gap by comparing WM performance between these groups and investigating potential moderators. A comprehensive literature search identified 21 studies involving 1455 participants from seven databases, including PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest. Athletes primarily engaged in basketball, football, and fencing, while non-athletes included some identified as sedentary. The risk of bias assessment indicated low risk across most domains. Publication bias, assessed through a funnel plot and statistical tests, showed no significant evidence of bias. The forest plot, using a random effects model, revealed moderate heterogeneity. The overall effect size indicated a statistically significant, albeit small, advantage for athletes over non-athletes (Hedges’ g = 0.30), persisting across sports types and performance levels. Notably, this advantage was more pronounced when athletes were contrasted with a sedentary population (Hedges’ g = 0.63), compared to the analysis where the sedentary population was excluded from the non-athlete reference group (Hedges’ g = 0.15). Our findings indicate a consistent link between sports expertise and improved WM performance, while sedentary lifestyles appear to be associated with WM disadvantages.