Reshaping Executive Function in Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial Based on Martial Arts Attack and Defense Games

Background: Executive function is of great significance for the development of adolescents. Martial arts interventions may promote its development, but the teaching of traditional martial arts routines has limited effectiveness. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the intervention effect of martial arts incorporating attack and defense games on the executive function of adolescents. Methods: Seventy-six male adolescents aged 13~15 years were recruited and randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group incorporated games such as one-on-one attack and defense practice and group combat into the learning of Changquan, while the control group only learned the Changquan routine. The intervention lasted for 10 weeks, with 3 sessions per week and 60 minutes per session at a moderate intensity. The Flanker, 2-back, and More-odd shifting tasks were used to measure the inhibitory, updating, and shifting functions respectively. Results: After the intervention, the experimental group performed better than the control group in the inhibitory function (with significantly shorter reaction times under congruent and incongruent conditions) and the shifting function (with significantly shorter reaction times under size shifting, odd-even shifting, and size odd-even shifting conditions), but there was no significant difference between the two groups in the updating function. Conclusions: The martial arts intervention incorporating attack and defense games can effectively improve the inhibitory and shifting functions of adolescents, but has an unsatisfactory intervention effect on the updating function. It is expected that subsequent studies will expand the sample size and extend the intervention period to further test its effectiveness.