Increased Cortical Thickness in Sports Experts: A Comparison of Diving Players with the Controls

Sports experts represent a population of people who have acquired expertise in sports training and competition. Recently, the number of studies on sports experts has increased; however, neuroanatomical changes following extensive training are not fully understood. In this study, we used cortical thickness measurement to investigate the brain anatomical characteristics of professional divers with extensive training experience. A comparison of the brain anatomical characteristics of the non-athlete group with those of the athlete group revealed three regions with significantly increased cortical thickness in the athlete group. These regions included the left superior temporal sulcus, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the mean cortical thickness of the right parahippocampal gyrus and the training experience was detected, which might indicate the effect of extensive training on diving players' brain structure

“No Pain No Gain”: Evidence from a Parcel-Wise Brain Morphometry Study on the Volitional Quality of Elite Athletes

Volition is described as a psychological construct with great emphasis on the sense of agency. During volitional behavior, an individual always presents a volitional quality, an intrapersonal trait for dealing with adverse circumstances, which determines the individual’s persistence of action toward their intentions or goals. Elite athletes are a group of experts with superior volitional quality and, thereby, could be regarded as the natural subject pool to investigate this mental trait. The purpose of this study was to examine brain morphometric characteristics associated with volitional quality by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the Scale of Volitional Quality. We recruited 16 national-level athletes engaged in short track speed skating and 18 healthy controls matched with age and gender. A comparison of a parcel-wise brain anatomical characteristics of the healthy controls with those of the elite athletes revealed three regions with significantly increased cortical thickness in the athlete group. These regions included the left precuneus, the left inferior parietal lobe, and the right superior frontal lobe, which are the core brain regions involved in the sense of agency. The mean cortical thickness of the left inferior parietal lobe was significantly correlated with the independence of volitional quality (a mental trait that characterizes one’s intendency to control his/her own behavior and make decisions by applying internal standards and/or objective criteria). These findings suggest that sports training is an ideal model for better understanding the neural mechanisms of volitional behavior in the human brain

Digital "Exercise Psychologist" System: Development and Its Application

Exercise can enhance cognitive function, improve emotional well-being, prevent various physical and mental illnesses, ultimately promote mental health. Expert teams have seamlessly integrated digital technology with measurements of psychological tests in the framework of exercise psychology to design and implement the Digital &quot;Exercise Psychologist&quot; System. This system consisted of psychological measurement module and intervention module towards school children and adolescents. It can assess the mental health of children and adolescents through customized evaluations, and provide personalized exercise training recommendations based on the evaluation score, with the ultimate goal of promoting mental health.</p

Sport expert's motor imagery: Functional imaging of professional motor skills and simple motor skills

Numerous studies provide evidence that motor skill acquisition is associated with dynamic changes in cortical and subcortical regions. Athletes are a professional population who are engaged in extensive motor training for long periods. However, the neural substrates of extreme level motor performance have not been clarified. We used kinesthetic imagery task to induce the mental representation of sport expert&#39;s extraordinary performance in view of the shared substrates of executing movement and motor imagery. For the first time, we compared, through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the pattern of cerebral activations in 12 professional divers and 12 normal people without extensive training, during imagery of professional skills and imagery of simple motor skills. The sport experts showed significant activation in the parahippocampus during imagery of professional skills relative to the novices, which might reflect the representation adapted to experience-related motor tasks. No significant difference was found between experts and novices when they imagined simple motor skills. These results indicated the experts might utilize their kinesthetic imagery more efficiently than novices, but only for the activity in which they had expertise. The sport experts also demonstrated more focused activation patterns in prefrontal areas in both of imagery tasks, which may be relevant to higher order of motor control during motor imagery. Moreover, this study suggested that the brains of sport experts could be regarded as the ideal subjects to explore the relationship between cerebral plasticity and learning of complex motor skills. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p

Enhanced Integrity of White Matter Microstructure in Mind–Body Practitioners: A Whole-Brain Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) is an increasingly popular multimodal mind–body practice with potential cognitive benefits, yet the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these effects, particularly in relation to brain white matter (WM) microstructure, remain largely unknown. In this study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the attention network test (ANT) to compare 22 TCC practitioners and 18 healthy controls. We found extensive differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) between the two groups. Specifically, TCC practitioners had significantly different diffusion metrics in the corticospinal tract (CST), fornix (FX)/stria terminalis (ST), and cerebral peduncle (CP). We also observed a significant correlation between increased FA values in the right CP and ANT performance in TCC practitioners. Our findings suggest that optimized regional WM microstructure may contribute to the complex information processing associated with TCC practice, providing insights for preventing cognitive decline and treating neurological disorders with cognitive impairment in clinical rehabilitation

Concurrent Performance of Executive Function during Acute Bouts of Exercise in Adults: A Systematic Review

The purpose of the study was to systematically review the evidence on the effects of an acute bout of exercise on concurrent performance of core executive function (EF) during exercise in adults. Four electronic databases (i.e., PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and SportDiscus) were searched from inception dates to 30 December 2020. The literature searches were conducted using the combinations of two groups of relevant items related to exercise and executive function. Articles were limited to human studies in adults. The search process, study selection, data extraction, and study quality assessments were carried out independently by two researchers. A total of 4899 studies were identified. Twenty-two studies met our inclusion criteria. Of the 42 reported outcomes in the 22 studies, 13 (31%) of the 42 outcomes showed that core EF performance was enhanced during exercise and 14 (33%) found that core EF performance did not differ from control conditions. Fifteen (36%) found that core EF performance was impaired. Notably, improved EF performances tend to be observed during moderate-intensity exercise, whereas impaired EF performances were more likely to be observed at vigorous-high intensity. The review suggests mixed findings regarding the effects of an acute bout of exercise on concurrent performance of core EF. Exercise intensity seems to influence the effects. The underlying neural mechanisms remain to be elucidated. &nbsp;</p

Brain structure in diving players on MR imaging studied with voxel-based morphometry

We adopted professional diving players as a typical subject pool to explore whether structural brain differences relative to motor skill acquisition exist between highly skilled athletes and non-athletes. Based on the voxel-based morphometric (VBM) technique, structural MRIs of the brains of 12 elite diving players with professional training were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects without any professional physical training. Diving players showed significantly increased gray matter density in the thalamus and left precentral gyrus than control subjects. However, future researches are needed to prove the contribution of preposition and practice. It also suggests that athletes as the subject pool could form a new subject pool to explore plastic change induced by motor skill acquisition.We adopted professional diving players as a typical subject pool to explore whether structural brain differences relative to motor skill acquisition exist between highly skilled athletes and non-athletes. Based on the voxel-based morphometric (VBM) technique, structural MRIs of the brains of 12 elite diving players with professional training were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects without any professional physical training. Diving players showed significantly increased gray matter density in the thalamus and left precentral gyrus than control subjects. However, future researches are needed to prove the contribution of preposition and practice. It also suggests that athletes as the subject pool could form a new subject pool to explore plastic change induced by motor skill acquisition. (C) 2009 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved

Enhanced Integrity of White Matter Microstructure in Mind–Body Practitioners: A Whole-Brain Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) is an increasingly popular multimodal mind-body practice with potential cognitive benefits, yet the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these effects, particularly in relation to brain white matter (WM) microstructure, remain largely unknown. In this study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the attention network test (ANT) to compare 22 TCC practitioners and 18 healthy controls. We found extensive differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) between the two groups. Specifically, TCC practitioners had significantly different diffusion metrics in the corticospinal tract (CST), fornix (FX)/stria terminalis (ST), and cerebral peduncle (CP). We also observed a significant correlation between increased FA values in the right CP and ANT performance in TCC practitioners. Our findings suggest that optimized regional WM microstructure may contribute to the complex information processing associated with TCC practice, providing insights for preventing cognitive decline and treating neurological disorders with cognitive impairment in clinical rehabilitation.</p

Regional Inflation of the Thalamus and Globus Pallidus in Diving Players

Purpose: Several recent studies have identified structural changes in the cerebral cortex that occur with extensive motor training. However, limited studies have been conducted to explore the structural changes of subcortical structures, which are thought to play important roles in motor functioning. This study aims to localize the shape differences of the subcortical structures between the diving players and the nonathlete group. Methods: Twelve professional players with top-level diving skills and 12 age- and education-matched healthy controls without any training experience were scanned with a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging. Data were processed using FSL-FIRST, a model-based segmentation and registration tool. Results: Compared with the nonathlete group, we found significant regional inflation in the bilateral thalamus and the left globus pallidus in diving players. Conclusion: Although we cannot rule out the effect of predispositions, the regional inflation of the thalamus and globus pallidus might reflect the experience-dependent plasticity because of extensive diving training.</p