(PO19-06-22) Nutrition, Vision, and Cognition in Sport: E-Sport Gaming Athletes

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Presenting Author(s)

JG

Jenna Goulart
– Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States

Co-Author(s)

LA

Logan Aitken
– Texas A&M University
SS

Saman Siddiqui
– Texas A&M University
JC

Jaqueline Cardenas
– Texas A&M University
MC

Marisa Cuevas
– Texas A&M University
KB

Karen Beathard, PhD
– Texas A&M University
SR

Steve Riechman, Professor
– Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States

Disclosure(s):

Jenna Goulart: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: Esports, a competitive athletic activity in which high levels of attention and cognitive performance are required, is growing across the globe. Improving Esport athlete performance, namely cognitive endurance and resilience may lie in nutritional strategies. Dairy products have been hypothesized to improve cognitive performance due to their high-quality proteins and associated bioactive peptides, lipids, electrolyte composition, vitamin D, and gut microbiota modulations with fermented dairy products. Rather than individual nutrients, dairy’s balanced food matrix may contribute to improved cognition though investigations of dairy’s link to Esports and cognitive performance is lacking. The Nutrition, Vision, and Cognition in Sport Studies investigate nutritional and behavioral factors that can influence cognition in 3-dimensional multiple objects tracking test (3DMOT) via NeuroTracker X software. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to describe and characterize the lifestyle of Esport athletes to include nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and cognitive performance.

Methods: Professional, elite, and experienced male and female gamers (16–35-years old) completed 10 food records and completed 20 NeuroTracker X sessions over a period of 8 days. Participants were instructed to maintain their normal eating patterns throughout the duration of the study. Physical activity and sleep data were recorded via activity trackers. Preliminary surveys were also completed regarding sleep, activity, depression risk/ index, and gaming rank and status.

Results: One-way ANOVA indicated a significant (P <0.05) difference in fruit, vegetable, and fiber intake among professional athletes versus elite and avid gamers. However, while the professional athletes had a significantly better overall diet than the elite and avid gamers, their NTx performance was lower. Nonetheless, the small sample size of this group (n=2) is a major limitation in this finding. Additionally, all participants did not meet recommended intakes for dairy which is the only food group in which this occurred.

Conclusions: These analyses suggest that nutrition could be a factor in the achievement of professional gamer status. More research is warranted in determining a balanced food component to elevate performance.

Funding Sources: This work is funded by Dairy MAX.