Long-term physical exercise and somatosensory event-related potentials

Abstract

We have compared the occurrence patterns of somatosensory event-related potentials (ERPs) in athletes (soccer players) and non-athletes. ERPs were elicited by two oddball tasks following separate somatosensory stimulation at the median nerve (upper-limb task) and at the tibial nerve (lower-limb task). In the athlete group the N140 amplitudes were larger during upper- and lower-limb tasks and the P300 amplitude and latency were larger and shorter, respectively, during the lower-limb task compared with non-athletes. On the other hand, no significant differences in the P300 amplitude and latency during the upper-limb task were observed between the athlete and non-athlete groups. These results indicate that plastic changes in somatosensory processing might be induced by performing physical exercises that require attention and skilled movements.

Frontal-parietal responses to “oddball” stimuli depicting “fattened” faces are increased in successful dieters: An electroencephalographic study

“…Previous evidence has shown a decrease of P300 amplitude in concussed athletes compared with athletes who never sustained concussions (Lavoie et al, 2004;De Beaumont et al, 2007;Thériault et al, 2009). Furthermore, the present findings complement several lines of evidence pointing to differences in ERP amplitude between athletes and non athletes, using stimuli not related to faces and food (Rossi and Zani, 1986;Iwadate et al, 2005;Di Russo et al, 2006;Ozmerdivenli et al, 2005;Fontani et al, 1999;Endo et al, 2006;Del Percio et al, 2007). Compared with non-athletes, athletes were characterized by a modulation of P300 during somatosensory and discriminative tasks (Iwadate et al, 2005;Di Russo et al, 2006;Del Percio et al, 2007).…”

“…To test this hypothesis, the present study applied the same methodological approach of a reference study (Babiloni et al, 2009a) in two groups of normal weight subjects, namely a group of non dieting subjects and a group of karate athletes representative of successful dieters. In precedence, "oddball" paradigms using other kinds of stimuli have been successful to unveil differences of P300 amplitude between athletes and non-athletes (Rossi and Zani, 1986;Iwadate et al, 2005;Di Russo et al, 2006;Ozmerdivenli et al, 2005;Fontani et al, 1999;Endo et al, 2006;Del Percio et al, 2007).…”

Local contextual processing of abstract and meaningful real-life images in professional athletes

“…However, little is known regarding local contextual processing in subjects who may have superior abilities in dynamic second by second extraction of information and decision making, such as professional athletes. Past studies have suggested that athletes have enhanced psychomotor skills and an advanced ability to extract cues from a rapidly changing environment in order to make fast decisions (Hatfield et al 2004;Iwadate et al 2005;Di Russo et al 2006;Aglioti et al 2008;Nakamoto and Mori 2008). For example, elite basketball players have been shown to have a superior ability to predict the success of free shots at a basket that may be related to fine tuning of anticipatory mechanisms (Aglioti et al 2008).…”

“…However, other findings have shown no P3b changes as a result of either fitness or acute bouts of exercise (Stroth et al 2009). In addition, professional athletes have been shown to have both increased (Iwadate et al 2005;Di Russo et al 2006) and decreased P3b amplitudes (Radlo et al 2001) compared with novices or non-athletes. In the present study, we investigated two groups of skilled athletes that had comparable years of experience and hours of daily practice, thus excluding possible confounds of differences in P3b amplitudes due to fitness level.…”

The effect of recreational soccer training and running on postural balance in untrained men

“…Perrin and co-workers (1998) postulated that training could lead to adaptations in sensorimotor function that were transferable to postural control also in non-speciWc conditions of practice (Perrin et al 1998). Furthermore, Iwadate and colleagues observed larger evoked response amplitudes and shorter latency of the event-related potentials during median and tibial nerve stimulation in soccer players compared with sedentary subjects and postulated that plastic changes in somatosensory processing might be induced by performing physical exercises that involve high-level cognitive processing and execution of skilled movements (Iwadate et al 2005). Potential neural adaptations in the involved anti-gravity postural system following training may therefore be inXuenced by the total amount and rate of footsteps as well as the duration or number of incidents during training in unstable or quickly changing unpredictable situations for the involved joints and muscles.…”