“Neural Efficiency” of Athletes’ Brain during Visuo-Spatial Task: An fMRI Study on Table Tennis Players

Abstract

Long-term training leads experts to develop a focused and efficient organization of task-related neural networks. “Neural efficiency” hypothesis posits that neural activity is reduced in experts. Here we tested the following working hypotheses: compared to non-athletes, athletes showed lower cortical activation in task-sensitive brain areas during the processing of sports related and sports unrelated visuo-spatial tasks. To address this issue, cortical activation was examined with fMRI in 14 table tennis athletes and 14 non-athletes while performing the visuo-spatial tasks. Behavioral results showed that athletes reacted faster than non-athletes during both types of the tasks, and no accuracy difference was found between athletes and non-athletes. fMRI data showed that, athletes exhibited less brain activation than non-athletes in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, right middle orbitofrontal area, right supplementary motor area, right paracentral lobule, right precuneus, left supramarginal gyrus, right angular gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, bilateral lingual gyrus and left cerebellum crus. No region was significantly more activated in the athletes than in the non-athletes. These findings possibly suggest that long-standing training prompt athletes develop a focused and efficient organization of task-related neural networks, as a possible index of “neural efficiency” in athletes engaged in visuo-spatial tasks, and this functional reorganization is possibly task-specific.

EEG activity during balance platform test in humans

“…Specifically, lower reduction in amplitude of EEG oscillations at dominant alpha rhythms were observed during different posture keeping experiments. This may support "neural efficiency" hypothesis in sense of a more selective involvement of related cortical areas [Del Percio, 2009;Guo, 2017].…”

Neurodiagnostics in Sports: Investigating the Athlete’s Brain to Augment Performance and Sport-Specific Skills

“…A recent functional MRI (fMRI) study by Naito and Hirose (2014) provided novel evidence that the brain of a top-class football player (Neymar) relies on less neuronal resources in motor-related areas as compared to other athletes. Similar findings have been found in other sports disciplines such as table tennis where athletes show less brain activation during the execution of sports-related and sports-unrelated visuospatial tasks as compared to non-athletes (Guo et al, 2017). Moreover, several studies provide compelling evidence that there is a causal relationship between brain activation and behavioral performance (Orban et al, 2010;Peterson and Fling, 2018) or motor skill learning capabilities (Sun et al, 2007;Wadden et al, 2013), respectively.…”

Experience modulates motor imagery‐based brain activity

“…Critically, this finding allows us to conclude that it is experienced with the task and not the sport‐specific nature of the ‘expert’ task that modulates brain activity driven via MI. The recruitment of additional regions across both hemispheres that we observed between tasks with a low vs. high degree of experience is in alignment with previous literature that suggests brain activation during novice performance reflects an inefficient and unorganized network (Haufler et al ., ; Milton et al ., ; Percio et al ., ; Del Percio et al ., ; Bar & DeSouza, ; Guo et al ., ), and that greater recruitment of bilateral regions involved in motor planning may be indicative of the additional ‘effort’ required (Milton et al ., ; Percio et al ., ; Del Percio et al ., ; Guo et al ., ).…”