Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_CC57C351B948
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level.
Journal
Plos One
Author(s)
Taubert M., Wenzel U., Draganski B., Kiebel S.J., Ragert P., Krug J., Villringer A.
ISSN
1932-6203 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1932-6203
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2015
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
10
Number
6
Pages
e0129508
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
In sport events like Olympic Games or World Championships competitive athletes keep pushing the boundaries of human performance. Compared to team sports, high achievements in many athletic disciplines depend solely on the individual's performance. Contrasting previous research looking for expertise-related differences in brain anatomy at the group level, we aim to demonstrate changes in individual top athlete's brain, which would be averaged out in a group analysis. We compared structural magnetic resonance images (MRI) of three professional track-and-field athletes to age-, gender- and education-matched control subjects. To determine brain features specific to these top athletes, we tested for significant deviations in structural grey matter density between each of the three top athletes and a carefully matched control sample. While total brain volumes were comparable between athletes and controls, we show regional grey matter differences in striatum and thalamus. The demonstrated brain anatomy patterns remained stable and were detected after 2 years with Olympic Games in between. We also found differences in the fusiform gyrus in two top long jumpers. We interpret our findings in reward-related areas as correlates of top athletes' persistency to reach top-level skill performance over years.
Keywords
Adult, Athletes, Athletic Performance/physiology, Brain/anatomy & histology, Corpus Striatum/anatomy & histology, Gray Matter/anatomy & histology, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Muscle, Skeletal/physiology, Neuroanatomy/methods, Physical Endurance/physiology, Physical Exertion/physiology, Thalamus/anatomy & histology, Track and Field/physiology
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
20/06/2015 8:34
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:47
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