Visuo-spatial pseudohemineglect in professional sportsmen

Abstract

Repetition behavior such that involved in some professional circumstances (e.g., sport or musical training) seems to generate consistent and relatively typical changes, as a consequence of cerebral plasticity. We comparatively examined, independently for each hand, the performances in a line bisection task of three equivalent (in respect to relevant demographic parameters) groups of male subjects, all right-handed: professional sportsmen in branches requiring eye-hand coordination (n = 27), students in sports and physical education who practice the same sport disciplines but not at professional level (n = 28), and students in other faculties in which physical education is optional into the curriculum (n = 29). Using the right hand, the sportsmen show a clear left pseudohemineglect, compared with the subjects of the control groups. Using the left hand all groups of subjects seem to present a right pseudohemineglect, which is significantly more reduced in sportsmen. The results are explained in the frame of the ''Group Cortical Organisation and Activation Theory''.

Line bisection performance in patients with generalized anxiety disorder and treatment-resistant depression

“…Considering that most Chinese people are trained to use their right hands as artful ones in their early lives 25, studies of such training in athletes showed consistently moderate rightward errors in the line bisection task 26,27, we therefore selected 155 moderate to strong right-handed subjects for our study. Fifty-six healthy volunteers were recruited among college students, medical staff members or paid volunteers.…”