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Archive > Year 2012, Number 1

Chronic attention impairments in amateur boxing: Effect of repeated blows to the head


Authors

Khani Mostafa, Physical Educational Faculty, Tehran University

Abstract

Boxing is one of the organized, high contact sports which imply premeditated punches to the opponent’s head and body in order to achieve victory, both at professional and amateur levels; therefore, head injury is highly expected. When this kind of injury happens, it is possible that in spite of intact cognitive functions, overall cognitive productivity may suffer due to inattentiveness, defective concentration, and consequent mental fatigue. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is observing attention impairments in experienced and novice amateur boxers. The study was conducted on an experimental group of 30 male amateur boxers (24.0±3.1 years old) with more than 4 years experience, a control group of 30 male novice amateur boxers (25.0±4.2 years old) with less than one year experience, and 30 male runners in 400 and 800 m (24.0±2.7 years old). DAUF – the differential attention test – Sustained Attention, as a component of the Vienna Test System was used for monitoring attention. Data were analyzed through the One-Way ANOVA statistical method with a 0.05 probability error. The results showed no significant difference between paired groups (p>0.05), meaning that probably practicing amateur boxing for more than 4 years does not lead to the impairment of the attention components. We concluded that the intensity of the blows in amateur boxing did not cause brain damage, at least not in the regions responsible for attention control.

Keywords

Amateur boxing, attention impairment, brain injury

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