Cognitive Resilience and Psychological Responses across a Collegiate Rowing Season.

Introduction: Student-athletes face numerous challenges across their competitive season. Although mood states have been previously studied, little is known about adaptations in other psychological responses, specifically cognition. The purpose of this study was to characterize cognitive function, mood, sleep and stress responses at select time-points of a season in collegiate rowers. It was hypothesized that during baseline, typical training and recovery, athletes would show positive mental health profiles, in contrast to decreases in cognition with increases in negative mood and measurements of stress during peak training. Methods: Male and female Division I rowers (N = 43) and healthy controls (N = 23) were enrolled and assessed at baseline, typical training, peak training and recovery. At each time-point, measures of cognitive performance (Stroop color-naming task), academic and exercise load, perceived cognitive deficits, mood states, sleep and stress (via self-report & salivary cortisol) were recorded. Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant group by time interactions for perceived exercise load, cognitive deficits, mood states and perceived stress (p

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