Visual function, performance, and processing of basketball players vs. sedentary individuals Vera Vílchez, Jesús Jiménez Rodríguez, Raimundo Cárdenas Vélez, David Redondo Cabrera, Beatriz García García, José Antonio Exercise Fitness level Health Heart rate variability Visual skills Team sports The authors thank Ernesto Suarez and David Nesbitt for translating the text into English. We also acknowledge all the participants who selflessly participated in this study. The study was funded in part by a Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness grant #DEP2013-48211-R. Background Athletes tend to have better visuo-motor performance than do sedentary individuals. However, several basic visual-function and perceptual parameters remain unexplored to date. In this study, we investigated whether differences exist in visual function, performance, and processing between basketball players and individuals without a sport-involvement background. Methods A total of 33 healthy men with no visual impairment or pathology were divided into 2 groups, depending on the involvement in sport (semi-professional basketball players and sedentary individuals). We tested their baseline heart-rate variability in the resting position apart from subjective questionnaires to determine their physical fitness level, and we checked their visual function, performance, and processing through an extended battery of optometric tests. Results The 2 groups differed in resting heart-rate variability parameters (p < 0.001), confirming their dissimilarities in regular time practising sports per week. The basketball players showed a closer breakpoint and recovery nearpoint of convergence, a higher fusional-vergence rate, better discriminability halos, and better eye–hand coordination (all p values < 0.05). Conclusion These results show evidence that athletes, basketball players in this case, exhibit better performance in several visual abilities in comparison to a group of individuals without sporting backgrounds, suggesting an improvement due to the systematic involvement of those skills during basketball practice. 2021-01-27T08:06:09Z 2021-01-27T08:06:09Z 2020-12 journal article Vera, J., Jiménez, R., Cárdenas, D., Redondo, B., & García, J. A. (2017). Visual function, performance, and processing of basketball players versus sedentary individuals. Journal of Sport and Health Science. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2017.05.001] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/66048 10.1016/j.jshs.2017.05.001 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ open access Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España Elsevier