Objectives To investigate the relationship between different exercise types and the attention network.Methods A total of 75 university students were enrolled and randomly divided into an open-skill exercise group,a closed-skill exercise group and an irregular exercise control group,each of 25.They underwent the exercise as their group names implied.Then the attention network test was performed to evaluate their functions of the alerting network,orienting network and executive control network.Results Significant differences were found in the function of the executive control network among the 3 groups,while no significant difference was found among the 3 groups in the functions of the alerting network and orienting network.Conclusions Both open-and closed-skill exercise are associated with better function of executive control network.Furthermore,open-skill exercise showes more benefits than closed-skill exercise in promoting the function of the executive control network.Neither opennor closed-skill exercise bring benefits to the function of the alerting or orienting network.