This is the conclusion of a recent study carried out by the National Distance Education University (UNED) in collaboration with the Jaume I University and whose work has been published in the journal Perception .
For the study, the researchers compared the visuospatial speed and motor response of 16 professional kung-fu athletes with 14 youths who did not play sports; all the participants were an average of 30 years old. The task was based on pressing a specific key on the computer keyboard as quickly as possible each time they saw the stimulus appear, which was nothing more than a black dot on the computer screen. In addition, they performed a second test to analyze their motor speed . All participants were right-handed and were asked to press the space bar as quickly as possible using first the index finger of the right hand and then the index finger of the left hand.
“Our results indicate that kung fu practitioners were faster in detecting stimuli presented in the periphery of the visual field, especially if they appeared at a faster rate,” the researchers say. In the second test, kung-fu practitioners were significantly faster than non-athletes with only the right hand , which would show that they have developed greater laterality, thanks to years of training, than non-athletes.
The type of training carried out by people who practice kung-fu involves a large number of circular movements executed more laterally than in other martial arts such as taekwondo or karate; In this way, the study concludes that they are faster detecting stimuli that appear in the periphery of their visual field, than any other person who does not practice this sport.
