Neural correlates of motor imagery for elite archers

Abstract

Motor imagery is a mental rehearsal of simple or complex motor acts without overt body movement. It has been proposed that the association between performance and the mental rehearsal period that precedes the voluntary movement is an important point of difference between highly trained athletes and beginners. We compared the activation maps of elite archers and nonarchers during mental rehearsal of archery to test whether the neural correlates of elite archers were more focused and efficiently organised than those of nonarchers. Brain activation was measured using functional MRI in 18 right-handed elite archers and 18 right-handed nonarchers. During the active functional MRI imagery task, the participants were instructed to mentally rehearse their archery shooting from a first-person perspective. The active imagery condition was tested against the nonmotor imagery task as a control condition. The results showed that the premotor and supplementary motor areas, and the inferior frontal region, basal ganglia and cerebellum, were active in nonarchers, whereas elite archers showed activation primarily in the supplementary motor areas. In particular, our result of higher cerebellar activity in nonarchers indicates the increased participation of the cerebellum in nonarchers when learning an unfamiliar archery task. Therefore, the difference in cerebellar activation between archers and nonarchers provides evidence of the expertise effect in the mental rehearsal of archery. In conclusion, the relative economy in the cortical processes of elite archers could contribute to greater consistency in performing the specific challenge in which they are highly practised.

The influence of motor expertise on the brain activity of motor task performance: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

“…The meta-analyses in each task group included an analysis for the contrast showing stronger effects in motor experts than in novices, and an analysis for the contrast showing stronger effects in novices than in motor experts. Because meta-analysis cannot be conducted on a single study, motor imagery studies were not grouped together as a motor task group (only one study shows stronger effects in motor experts than in novices, Harris & de Jong, 2014; and only one study shows stronger effects in novices than in motor experts, Chang et al, 2011).…”

“…Recent research has indicated that motor expertise influences the brain activity of motor execution (e.g., Bernardi et al, 2013;Meister et al, 2005), motor observation (e.g., Kim et al, 2011;Olsson & Lundström, 2013;Pilgramm, Lorey, Stark, Munzert, Vaitl, & Zentgraf, 2010;Stout et al, 2011;, motor imagery or planning (e.g., Chang et al, 2011;Milton, Solodkin, Hlustík, & Small, 2007;Wei & Luo, 2010), motor prediction (e.g., Abreu et al, 2012;Balser et al, 2014;, and even the comprehension of action language (Beilock, Lyons, MattarellaMicke, Nusbaum, & Small, 2008;Lyons et al, 2010;Tomasino, Maieron, Guatto, Fabbro, & Rumiati, 2013). However, the findings are inconsistent.…”

“…Several recent studies have found that compared with novices, motor experts showed reduced brain activity in the ventral and dorsal premotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), superior parietal lobule (SPL), anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum during motor tasks, and this may suggest enhanced brain functions in motor performance (e.g., Balser et al, 2014;Chang et al, 2011;Haslinger et al, 2004;Milton et al, 2007;Pau, Jahn, Sakreida, Domin, & Lotze, 2013;Petrini et al, 2011;Wright, Bishop, Jackson, & Abernethy, 2010). For instance, Milton et al (2007) investigated the motor planning of expert golfers during pre-shot routine.…”

The relationship between corticospinal excitability during motor imagery and motor imagery ability

“…It seems intuitive that the extent of the vividness of a motor image would be associated with the pattern and/or level of neural activation in motor and related areas but, somewhat surprisingly, this relationship has received little attention from researchers. Studies in sport psychology suggest that athletes who utilise motor imagery regularly and report higher levels of imagery vividness for their sport specific tasks demonstrate different patterns of neural activation to novice or non-athlete groups who use motor imagery less [10,11]. Skilled performers also demonstrate significantly higher levels of corticospinal activation following TMS during imagery of movements related to their particular sport, when compared to novice performers [12].…”

Neuroplasticity of imagined wrist actions after spinal cord injury: a pilot study

“…A strong hypothesis was, considering that functional equivalence between MI and PP may be well preserved after SCI (Di Rienzo et al 2014a), that the reorganizations of MI networks should parallel the motor changes co-occurring with MI practice, as previously shown in healthy participants (Lacourse et al 2004;Jackson et al 2003). Particularly, we expected a more focused recruitment of brain motor networks during MI, a well-known neurophysiological index of motor learning in healthy controls (HC) (Chang et al 2011;Milton et al 2007;Ross et al 2003).…”