Enhanced proactive control under stress: divergent neural dynamics of social vs. Monetary rewards in table tennis athletes

Abstract

Background: In high-stress competitive sports, athletes rely on proactive control, a core process that maintains goal-relevant information during anticipated conflicts, which is modulated by motivational rewards. While prior studies have established reward's general benefits on cognitive performance, it remains unclear whether monetary (extrinsic) and social (intrinsic) rewards mitigate stress effects through divergent neurocognitive pathways. Methods: Twenty-three male table tennis athletes (age: 20.435 ± 1.903 years) performed a reward-modified AX-CPT task following acute stress induction via the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST). Proactive control was assessed through behavioral indices (reaction time, error rate) and event-related potentials [ERPs: Cue-P2, Cue-P3, P2, P3b, Contingent Negative Variation (CNV)], capturing neural dynamics of reward anticipation and sustained attention. Results: Both reward types enhanced proactive control, with social rewards eliciting larger P3b amplitudes than monetary rewards during target processing, reflecting greater sustained attentional engagement, which correlated with their superior behavioral performance. Monetary rewards augmented early attention similar to social rewards, while CNV amplitudes indicated sustained preparatory attention under social rewards. Conclusion: Monetary and social rewards recruit distinct neurocognitive pathways to enhance athletes' proactive control under stress: monetary rewards prioritize early attentional engagement, whereas social rewards optimize sustained cognitive resource allocation via intrinsic motivation. These findings unveil the electrophysiological basis of reward-contingent stress resilience, advancing dual-mechanism models of cognitive control.