| Title |
Structural differences in basal ganglia of elite running versus martial arts athletes: a diffusion tensor imaging study
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Experimental Brain Research, May 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00221-015-4293-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Yu-Kai Chang, Jack Han-Chao Tsai, Chun-Chih Wang, Erik Chihhung Chang |
| Abstract |
The aim of this study was to use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to characterize and compare microscopic differences in white matter integrity in the basal ganglia between elite professional athletes specializing in running and martial arts. Thirty-three young adults with sport-related skills as elite professional runners (n = 11) or elite professional martial artists (n = 11) were recruited and compared with non-athletic and healthy controls (n = 11). All participants underwent health- and skill-related physical fitness assessments. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), the primary indices derived from DTI, were computed for five regions of interest in the bilateral basal ganglia, including the caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus internal segment (GPi), globus pallidus external segment (GPe), and subthalamic nucleus. Results revealed that both athletic groups demonstrated better physical fitness indices compared with their control counterparts, with the running group exhibiting the highest cardiovascular fitness and the martial arts group exhibiting the highest muscular endurance and flexibility. With respect to the basal ganglia, both athletic groups showed significantly lower FA and marginally higher MD values in the GPi compared with the healthy control group. These findings suggest that professional sport or motor skill training is associated with changes in white matter integrity in specific regions of the basal ganglia, although these positive changes did not appear to depend on the type of sport-related motor skill being practiced. |
X Demographics
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Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 | 50% |
| United States | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 1 | 50% |
| Members of the public | 1 | 50% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 89 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 88 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 15 | 17% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 13 | 15% |
| Researcher | 8 | 9% |
| Student > Bachelor | 7 | 8% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 6 | 7% |
| Other | 19 | 21% |
| Unknown | 21 | 24% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Sports and Recreations | 17 | 19% |
| Neuroscience | 16 | 18% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 7 | 8% |
| Psychology | 7 | 8% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 3 | 3% |
| Other | 10 | 11% |
| Unknown | 29 | 33% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 June 2015.
All research outputs
#17,489,487
of 25,654,806 outputs
Outputs from Experimental Brain Research
#2,127
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Outputs of similar age
#169,864
of 279,548 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Experimental Brain Research
#25
of 68 outputs
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