Altered Resting Brain Function and Structure in Professional Badminton Players

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies of professional athletic or musical training have demonstrated considerable practicedependent plasticity in various brain structures, which may reflect distinct training demands. In the present study, structural and functional brain alterations were examined in professional badminton players and compared with healthy controls using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state functional MRI. Gray matter concentration (GMC) was assessed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and resting-brain functions were measured by amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and seed-based functional connectivity. Results showed that the athlete group had greater GMC and ALFF in the right and medial cerebellar regions, respectively. The athlete group also demonstrated smaller ALFF in the left superior parietal lobule and altered functional connectivity between the left superior parietal and frontal regions. These findings indicate that badminton expertise is associated with not only plastic structural changes in terms of enlarged gray matter density in the cerebellum, but also functional alterations in fronto-parietal connectivity. Such structural and functional alterations may reflect specific experiences of badminton training and practice, including high-capacity visuo-spatial processing and hand-eye coordination in addition to refined motor skills.

Exploring brain functional plasticity in world class gymnasts: a network analysis

“…Furthermore, previous studies (Di et al 2012;Di Paola et al 2013;Bernardi et al 2013;Walz et al 2015) revealed an effect of long-term motor skill training on the cerebellum. Di et al (2012) detected significantly increased gray matter density in the cerebellum in professional badminton players compared to controls.…”

“…Through this long-term intensive training, they acquire excellent abilities in perception, stimulus discrimination, decision making, motor preparation, and execution (Nakata et al 2010). Neuroimaging techniques have revealed brain structural or functional plasticity in a number of types of professional athletes, including skilled golfers (Jancke et al 2009), world class mountain climbers (Di Paola et al 2013), formula racing-car drivers (Bernardi et al 2013), badminton players (Di et al 2012), and world class archers (Kim et al 2008). These studies revealed that long-term motor skill training indeed caused plastic reorganization in brain structure and function and suggested that the reorganization may vary in different types of athletes.…”

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

“…Importantly, functional connectivity is related to motor skill learning (Albert et al, 2009;Song, Gotts, Dayan, & Cohen, 2015) and to higher levels of motor skill (Di, Zhu, Jin, Wang, Ye, Zhou et al, 2012;Ito, Matsuda, & Shimojo, 2015;Kim, Han, Kim, & Han, 2015;Milton, Solodkin, Hluštík, & Small, 2007;Li, He, Huang, Zhang, Lu, Lai et al, 2015). Functional connectivity tracks the learning of motor skills, and more distinct functional connections are associated with higher skill (Kim, Chang, Kim, Seo, Ryu, Lee et al, 2014;Milton et al, 2007).…”

“…Effective structural connections within brain regions would appear to lay the groundwork for the establishment of efficient functional connections across brain networks. Such connectivity appears to be a hallmark of experienced and expert performers (Di et al, 2012;Ito et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2014;Li et al, 2015;Milton et al, 2007).…”

Modificaciones de las interacciones audio-motoras asociadas con la formación musical y el aprendizaje de un vocabulario nuevo

“…For example, perceptual discrimination ability has been related to connectivity within visual networks (Baldassarre et al, 2012), and fluid intelligence and working memory have been related to frontoparietal connectivity (Cole et al, 2012). Changes in rs-fMRI connectivity have also been reported in cross-sectional studies by comparing effects of expertise, such as experienced meditators (Taylor et al, 2013) and expert athletes (Di et al, 2012).…”