The Role of Medial Frontal Cortex in Action Anticipation in Professional Badminton Players

Abstract

Some studies show that the medial frontal cortex is associated with more skilled action anticipation, while similar findings are not observed in some other studies, possibly due to the stimuli employed and the participants used as the control group. In addition, no studies have investigated whether there is any functional connectivity between the medial frontal cortex and other brain regions in more skilled action anticipation. Therefore, the present study aimed to re-investigate how the medial frontal cortex is involved in more skilled action anticipation by circumventing the limitations of previous research and to investigate that the medial frontal cortex functionally connected with other brain regions involved in action processing in more skilled action anticipation. To this end, professional badminton players and novices were asked to anticipate the landing position of the shuttlecock while watching badminton match videos or to judge the gender of the players in the matches. The video clips ended right at the point that the shuttlecock and the racket came into contact to reduce the effect of information about the trajectory of the shuttlecock. Novices who lacked training and watching experience were recruited for the control group to reduce the effect of sport-related experience on the medial frontal cortex. Blood oxygenation level-dependent activation was assessed by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Compared to novices, badminton players exhibited stronger activation in the left medial frontal cortex during action anticipation and greater functional connectivity between left medial frontal cortex and some other brain regions (e.g., right posterior cingulate cortex). Therefore, the present study supports the position that the medial frontal cortex plays a role in more skilled action anticipation and that there is a specific brain network for more skilled action anticipation that involves right posterior cingulate cortex, right fusiform gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, left insula and particularly, and left medial frontal cortex.

Nonlinear engagement of action observation network underlying action anticipation in players with different levels of expertise

“…The intensity of the evoked activation did not change linearly as a function of expertise level; instead, it exhibited an inverted U‐shaped profile across the three groups such that intermediates exhibited greater activation than did both novices and experts. These results reconcile the previously inconsistent findings of higher and lower activation in experts than intermediates or novices (Abreu et al, 2012; Balser, Lorey, Pilgramm, Naumann, et al, 2014; Balser, Lorey, Pilgramm, Stark, et al, 2014; Bishop et al, 2013; Bishop & Wright, 2018; Wright et al, 2010, 2011; Wu et al, 2013; Xu et al, 2016; for a review, see Smith, 2016). Furthermore, by fitting the activation intensity of the brain region from each player to the corresponding baseball‐playing experience, we found that in three of the four regions (except for the left pMTG/pSTS), a quadratic regression model showed better fitting than a linear one.…”

“…These results reconcile the previously inconsistent findings of higher and lower activation in experts than intermediates or novices (Abreu et al, 2012;Balser, Lorey, Pilgramm, Naumann, et al, 2014;Bishop et al, 2013;Bishop & Wright, 2018;Wright et al, 2010Wright et al, , 2011Wu et al, 2013;Xu et al, 2016; for a review, see Smith, 2016). Furthermore, by fitting the activation intensity of the brain region from each player to the corresponding baseball-playing experience, we found that in three of the four regions (except for the left pMTG/pSTS), a quadratic regression model showed better fitting than a linear one.…”

Adaptation of brain functional stream architecture in athletes with fast demands of sensorimotor integration

“…Recently, seed-based FC studies have found that the parietal cortex exhibits increased connectivity with the anterior cingulate and middle frontal cortices, and decreased connectivity with the inferior and middle frontal cortex in badminton players (Di et al, 2012). Other studies find increased connectivity from the medial frontal cortex to the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the fusiform gyrus, and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in badminton players compared to controls (Xu et al, 2016). Therefore, convergence evidence from different neuroimaging techniques has shown that regional brain changes occur across heteromodal regions in a wide range of sports modalities.…”

Altered Brain Functional Connectivity Density in Fast-Ball Sports Athletes With Early Stage of Motor Training

“…A study which implemented seedbased functional connectivity (FC) in distance runners shows increased connectivity between the fronto-parietal network and brain regions for execution functions compared to non-expert runners (Raichlen et al, 2016). These functional alterations in fronto-parietal connectivity were also found in badminton athletes (Di et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2016). In addition, similar results are found in elite karate players, suggesting brain areas associated with movement planning and visual perception having increased connectivity (Duru and Balcioglu, 2018).…”