Unleashing the potential of dance: a neuroplasticity-based approach bridging from older adults to Parkinson’s disease patients

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects >1% of individuals worldwide and is manifested by motor symptoms such as tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia, as well as non-motor symptoms such as cognitive impairment and depression. Non-pharmacological interventions such as dance therapy are becoming increasingly popular as complementary therapies for PD, in addition to pharmacological treatments that are currently widely available. Dance as a sensorimotor activity stimulates multiple layers of the neural system, including those involved in motor planning and execution, sensory integration, and cognitive processing. Dance interventions in healthy older people have been associated with increased activation of the prefrontal cortex, as well as enhanced functional connectivity between the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and prefrontal cortex. Overall, the evidence suggests that dance interventions can induce neuroplastic changes in healthy older participants, leading to improvements in both motor and cognitive functions. Dance interventions involving patients with PD show better quality of life and improved mobility, whereas the literature on dance-induced neuroplasticity in PD is sparse. Nevertheless, this review argues that similar neuroplastic mechanisms may be at work in patients with PD, provides insight into the potential mechanisms underlying dance efficacy, and highlights the potential of dance therapy as a non-pharmacological intervention in PD. Further research is warranted to determine the optimal dance style, intensity, and duration for maximum therapeutic benefit and to determine the long-term effects of dance intervention on PD progression

Dancing or Fitness Sport? The Effects of Two Training Programs on Hippocampal Plasticity and Balance Abilities in Healthy Seniors

Age-related degenerations in brain structure are associated with balance disturbances and cognitive impairment. However, neuroplasticity is known to be preserved throughout lifespan and physical training studies with seniors could reveal volume increases in the hippocampus (HC), a region crucial for memory consolidation, learning and navigation in space, which were related to improvements in aerobic fitness. Moreover, a positive correlation between left HC volume and balance performance was observed. Dancing seems a promising intervention for both improving balance and brain structure in the elderly. It combines aerobic fitness, sensorimotor skills and cognitive demands while at the same time the risk of injuries is low. Hence, the present investigation compared the effects of an 18-month dancing intervention and traditional health fitness training on volumes of hippocampal subfields and balance abilities. Before and after intervention, balance was evaluated using the Sensory Organization Test and HC volumes were derived from magnetic resonance images (3T, MP-RAGE). Fourteen members of the dance (67.21 ± 3.78 years, seven females), and 12 members of the fitness group (68.67 ± 2.57 years, five females) completed the whole study. Both groups revealed hippocampal volume increases mainly in the left HC (CA1, CA2, subiculum). The dancers showed additional increases in the left dentate gyrus and the right subiculum. Moreover, only the dancers achieved a significant increase in the balance composite score. Hence, dancing constitutes a promising candidate in counteracting the age-related decline in physical and mental abilities

Want to Impact Physical, Technical, and Tactical Performance during Basketball Small-Sided Games in Youth Athletes? Try Differential Learning Beforehand

This study aimed to analyze the acute effect of small-sided games, based on differential learning, on the physical, technical, and positioning performance of young basketball players. Eight basketball players under 13 (U13) participated in this study. A total of eight sessions involving half-court small-sided games (4 sets × 3 min + 1 min of passive recovery) under randomly different numerical relations were performed. Before each trial, players were verbally instructed to perform the drill in one of the conditions, in random order. Pre- and post-tests were performed in the 4v4 half-court format, in each session. External load and positional data were collected via a WIMU PRO local positioning system. Individual heart rate monitoring was used to assess the internal load. Game videos also collected notational data. The results revealed that, after the intervention, the players significantly decreased the total distance covered, the peak acceleration, average speed, training impulse, and the spatial exploration index; conversely, the results confirmed an increase in the number of dribbles. Small-sided games under randomly different numerical relations imposed acute effects in distinct variables during 4v4 half-court games. However, further studies are warranted, including longer interventions and parallel-group designs, to confirm if the training-induced effects of this method are significantly better compared to other approaches

Dance training is superior to repetitive physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity in the elderly

<div><p>Animal research indicates that a combination of physical activity and sensory enrichment has the largest and the only sustaining effect on adult neuroplasticity. Dancing has been suggested as a human homologue to this combined intervention as it poses demands on both physical and cognitive functions. For the present exploratory study, we designed an especially challenging dance program in which our elderly participants constantly had to learn novel and increasingly difficult choreographies. This six-month-long program was compared to conventional fitness training matched for intensity. An extensive pre/post-assessment was performed on the 38 participants (63–80 y), covering general cognition, attention, memory, postural and cardio-respiratory performance, neurotrophic factors and–most crucially–structural MRI using an exploratory analysis. For analysis of MRI data, a new method of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) designed specifically for pairwise longitudinal group comparisons was employed. Both interventions increased physical fitness to the same extent. Pronounced differences were seen in the effects on brain volumes: Dancing compared to conventional fitness activity led to larger volume increases in more brain areas, including the cingulate cortex, insula, corpus callosum and sensorimotor cortex. Only dancing was associated with an increase in plasma BDNF levels. Regarding cognition, both groups improved in attention and spatial memory, but no significant group differences emerged. The latter finding may indicate that cognitive benefits may develop later and after structural brain changes have taken place. The present results recommend our challenging dance program as an effective measure to counteract detrimental effects of aging on the brain.</p></div

Gray matter volume increases for the contrast dance > sport (red-colored) and for the contrast sport > dance (blue-colored).

<p><i>Annotation</i>. ACC: anterior cingulate cortex, MCC: medial cingulate cortex, SMA: supplementary motor area, V1: primary visual cortex.</p

Intraindividual changes in plasma BDNF level after intervention.

<p>Intraindividual changes in plasma BDNF level after intervention.</p

Flow chart of the study design.

<p>After all drop outs, we compared the data from 20 individuals in the experimental dance group with the data sets from 18 sportspersons in the control group.</p