Can Table Tennis performance be influenced by motor-cognitive interference?

Table tennis athletes have to distribute their cognitive resources to relevant cues that could decrease performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate how table tennis athletes are able to manage single- and dual-task situations, respectively. Thirteen expert table tennis athletes were recruited. Participants performed three single-tasks and two dual-tasks. The single tasks consisted in performing the Auditory Free-recall Memory Task (MT) and two table tennis tests: Easy Task (ET=drive) or Difficult Task (DT=top spin). In the MT, participants just had to store 20 words and recall them at the end of the tasks. In table tennis tests (ET and DT), participants had to return a series of throws from a robot machine. Participants simultaneously performed the table tennis test (ET or DT) in dual-tasks and the MT. NASA-TLX was filled up after each trial to measure physical (PD) and mental demands (MD). Significant differences were found among the different sessions (MT; MT+ET; MT+DT; p<.001). MT performance was higher when compared with MT performance during both the two dual-tasks. Nonsignificant differences between MT+ET and MT+DT were found. Mental and physical demands varied significantly across conditions (p < .001). The lowest PD was registered in MT, and the highest were recorded in DT and MT+DT. MD was significantly higher in MT+DT compared to all the other conditions. These findings highlight the role of motor-cognitive interference in table tennis and display the challenges athletes face when distributing attentional resources in demanding conditions.