Sport climbing requires a combination of physical and cognitive skills, with working memory (WM) playing a crucial role in performance. This study aimed to investigate the association between WM capacity and climbing ability, while considering potential confounding factors including sex, age, education level, and climbing experience. Additionally, the study compared prefrontal cortex (PFC) hemodynamic responses among different climbing ability groups and sex during WM performance. Twenty-eight climbers participated, with WM assessed using the eCorsi task and PFC hemodynamic responses measured with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Initial linear regression analyses revealed no association between WM and climbing ability. However, significant associations were found after adjustment for covariates. Specifically, sex (p = .014), sex in conjunction with age (p = .026), sex combined with climbing experience (p = .022), and sex along with education level (p = .038) were identified as significant predictors of differences in WM between Expert and Elite climbers. Additionally, notable differences in PFC hemodynamic responses were observed between Expert and Elite climbers, as well as between sexes during the WM task, providing support for differences in WM capacity. This study contributes to understanding the complex relationship between WM capacity and climbing performance, emphasizing the need to account for influencing factors in assessments.

Lianas are woody climbing plants that begin their life cycles as seedlings rooted in the ground, but eventually rely on other plants for physical support in order to reach the top of the forest canopy (Holbrook & Putz 1996, Putz & Holbrook 1991). Lianas can negatively affect plants they climb by competing with them for common resources such as light, water and nutrients, and by causing them direct physical damage (Dillenburg et al. 1995, Pérez-Salicrup & Barker 2000, Stevens 1987, Whigham 1984). Yet, there is little documentation about the size at which liana individuals of different species begin to climb on other plants in nature. This information is important because the size at which a liana begins to climb on other plants will determine when lianas potentially start physically affecting their supporting plants. Furthermore, although the growth of liana seedlings might be determined by light (Sanches & Válio 2002), the availability of support will also largely influence the rate of growth of liana stems (Peñalosa 1982, 1983, 1985). Thus, information about the size at which liana species find support in the forest understorey will be useful in understanding future growth of liana individuals.

To reach adult habitats, juveniles of three species of Hawaiian gobies (fishes under 3 cm long) climb waterfalls up to 350 m high, over 10 000 times their body length. The demands of moving through such an extreme environment could constrain the range of viable locomotor mechanisms that these fishes use. Previous qualitative observations indicated that Lentipes concolor and Awaous guamensis use ‘powerbursts’ of axial undulation to climb, whereas Sicyopterus stimpsoni ‘inches up’ vertical surfaces by alternately attaching oral and pelvic suckers to the substrate. To compare these propulsive mechanisms and their physiological requirements, high-speed video footage of climbing by juveniles from these three species on an artificial waterfall were collected, and climbing kinematics and performance for the two climbing styles were quantified. Bouts of powerburst climbing by L. concolor and A. guamensis typically begin in or near direct water flow and are initiated by a single, rapid adduction of the pectoral fins. Powerburst climbing bouts are rapid (12.4±1.0 body lengths (BL) s−1), but short in duration (0.07±0.02 s) with few continuous locomotor cycles (3.8±1.3 cycles bout−1). Powerburst climbers use high amplitude undulations along the entire body, but minimum resultant velocities of these undulations are high (>6 BL s−1). This suggests that these species may hybridize terrestrial propulsive mechanisms with aquatic mechanisms. In contrast, climbing by inching in S. stimpsoni involves little axial undulation or fin movement. Sicyopterus stimpsoni typically exit the water outside of direct flow and seem to use terrestrial propulsive mechanisms. As the oral disc attaches to the substrate, it expands to almost twice its resting area, after which the posterior body is pulled upwards; once the pelvic disc attaches, the oral disc releases and the anterior body advances. Climbing bouts include several continuous cycles of disc attachment (11.0±1.4 cycles bout−1) and last several seconds at velocities of 0.21±0.01 BL s−1. Before climbing waterfalls during migration to adult habitats, S. stimpsoni undergo a non-feeding metamorphosis that leads to the development of the mouth as a secondary locomotor organ. The unusual behaviour and ontogenetic strategy of S. stimpsoni seem to be evolutionary novelties, rather than ancestral retentions, suggesting that the evolution of these features may have been closely correlated. The substantial performance and kinematic distinctions between powerburst and inching climbing indicate that considerable locomotor diversity can evolve even in the context of extreme environmental demands.