The esports industry is increasing in popularity and is now played at the professional level. We hypothesized that esports players may have a significant advantage over the general population in terms of psychological and cognitive characteristics, which may be similar to that of professional baseball players. We recruited three participant groups: esports players (n = 55), pro-baseball players (n = 57), and age- and sex-matched healthy comparison subjects (n = 60). We assessed psychological status using the Korean versions of Temperament and Character Inventory and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory and cognitive functions using the modified Tower of London, Emotional Perception, and Mental Rotation tests. Esports players had similar psychological characteristics to pro-baseball players (higher novelty seeking [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.818], self-directedness [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.757], and self-transcendence scores [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.853], and decreased state anxiety scores [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.808]), which differed from those of the general population. However, esports players showed higher working memory [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.823] and slower emotional perception than pro-baseball players [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.812]. In conclusion, esports and pro-baseball players had similar psychological but different cognitive characteristics.

中文翻译：

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专业网络游戏玩家和职业棒球玩家之间的心理和认知特征比较。

电竞行业越来越受欢迎，现在处于专业水平。我们假设，在心理和认知特征方面，电子竞技运动员可能比普通人群具有显着优势，这可能与职业棒球运动员相似。我们招募了三个参与者组：电子竞技运动员（n = 55），职业棒球运动员（n = 57）以及年龄和性别匹配的健康比较对象（n= 60）。我们使用修改后的伦敦塔，情绪感知和心理旋转测试，使用韩语版的气质和性格量表以及状态和特质焦虑量表和认知功能来评估心理状态。电子竞技运动员的心理特征与职业棒球运动员相似（寻求更高的新颖性[ p <0.01 *，ŋ= 0.818]，自我指导[ p <0.01 *，ŋ= 0.757]，以及自我超越得分[ p <0.01 * ，ŋ= 0.853]，状态焦虑评分降低[ p <0.01 *，ŋ= 0.808]，与一般人群的得分不同。但是，电竞选手的工作记忆力更高[ p<0.01 *，ŋ= 0.823]，并且比亲棒球选手的情感知觉更慢[ p <0.01 *，ŋ= 0.812]。总之，电子竞技和职业棒球运动员的心理相似，但认知特征不同。