Ballroom Dancing Promotes Neural Activity in the Sensorimotor System: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Abstract

Objective This study aims at investigating differences in the spontaneous brain activity and functional connectivity in the sensorimotor system between ballroom dancers and nondancers, to further support the functional alteration in people with expertise. Materials and Methods Twenty-three ballroom dancers and twenty-one matched novices with no dance experience were recruited in this study. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and seed-based functional connectivity, as methods for assessing resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data, were used to reveal the resting-state brain function in these participants. Results Compared to the novices, ballroom dancers showed increased ALFF in the left middle temporal gyrus, bilateral precentral gyrus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus. The ballroom dancers also demonstrated lower ALFF in the left lingual gyrus and altered functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and temporal, parietal regions. Conclusions Our results indicated that ballroom dancers showed elevated neural activity in sensorimotor regions relative to novices and functional alterations in frontal-temporal and frontal-parietal connectivity, which may reflect specific training experience related to ballroom dancing, including high-capacity action perception, attentional control, and movement adjustment.

Occupational Neuroplasticity in the Human Brain: A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

“…Compared with non-dancers, female ballet dancers showed decreased GM volumes in the left supplementary, premotor, and motor cortices, as well as the putamen and superior frontal gyrus, decreased WM volumes in both internal capsules, both corticospinal tracts, the corpus callosum, and the left anterior cingulum; and reduced FA in the WM underlying bilateral premotor cortices (Hänggi, 2010 ). Recently, Lu et al ( 2018 ) found that ballroom dancers, as compared to novices, demonstrated reduced ALFF in the left lingual gyrus; elevated ALFF in the bilateral IFG, bilateral precentral gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus (STG), and right middle occipital gyrus; and altered FC among parietal and temporal areas and the IFG.…”

Contralesional homotopic functional plasticity in patients with temporal glioma

“…ALFF is a feasible and reliable indicator of resting-state regional brain activity, 41 which is altered in the presence of brain lesions. 12,43 ALFF has been used to measure diverse brain plasticity, including the sensorimotor system, 23 motor recovery, 21 reorganization of cerebro-cerebellar circuits, 43 and functional networks. 19 Altogether, this suggests that ALFF is a reliable tool to investigate brain disorders and the concomitant functional plasticity.…”

The Neuroscience of Dance: A Systematic Review of the Present State of Research and Suggestions for Future Work

“…Altered functional connectivity has also been found in dancers in several studies (Burzynska et al, 2017a;Hackney and Earhart, 2009;Li et al, 2015;. In (Lu et al, 2018), expert ballroom dancers had altered functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and temporal/parietal regions, but novice dancers did not. In (Burzynska et al, 2017a), dancers had greater functional connectivity between the thalamus and the frontal pole.…”

“…In (Lu et al, 2018) activity in sensorimotor regions than novice dancers, as well as "functional alterations in frontal-temporal and frontal-parietal connectivity" (Lu et al, 2018). These changes may well reflect the learning of skills needed for dancing, such as "action perception, attentional control, and movement adjustment" (Lu et al, 2018).…”

“…Both short-and long-term dance training lead to significant changes in brain structure (Burzynska et al, 2017a;Dordevic et al, 2018;Giacosa et al, 2016Giacosa et al, , 2019Hänggi et al, 2010;Hüfner et al, 2011;Karpati et al, 2017Karpati et al, , 2018Li et al, 2015;Meier et al, 2016;Nigmatullina et al, 2015;Porat et al, 2016), as well as in neural activity during, particularly, dance performance, imagery, and dance observation. Dance training also appears to affect resting state neural activity (Barnstaple and DeSouza, 2019;Ermutlu et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2018) and neural activity during musical recall (Jin et al, 2021).…”