TY - JOUR
T1 - Thalamo-sensorimotor functional connectivity correlates with world ranking of olympic, elite, and high performance athletes
AU - Huang, Zirui
AU - Davis, Henry
AU - Wolff, Annemarie
AU - Northoff, Georg
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Zirui Huang et al.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Brain plasticity studies have shown functional reorganization in participants with outstanding motor expertise. Little is known about neural plasticity associated with exceptionally long motor training or of its predictive value for motor performance excellence. The present study utilised resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in a unique sample of world-class athletes: Olympic, elite, and internationally ranked swimmers (n=30). Their world ranking ranged from 1st to 250th: each had prepared for participation in the Olympic Games. Combining rs-fMRI graph-theoretical and seed-based functional connectivity analyses, it was discovered that the thalamus has its strongest connections with the sensorimotor network in elite swimmers with the highest world rankings (career best rank: 1-35). Strikingly, thalamo-sensorimotor functional connections were highly correlated with the swimmers' motor performance excellence, that is, accounting for 41% of the individual variance in best world ranking. Our findings shed light on neural correlates of long-term athletic performance involving thalamo-sensorimotor functional circuits.
AB - Brain plasticity studies have shown functional reorganization in participants with outstanding motor expertise. Little is known about neural plasticity associated with exceptionally long motor training or of its predictive value for motor performance excellence. The present study utilised resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in a unique sample of world-class athletes: Olympic, elite, and internationally ranked swimmers (n=30). Their world ranking ranged from 1st to 250th: each had prepared for participation in the Olympic Games. Combining rs-fMRI graph-theoretical and seed-based functional connectivity analyses, it was discovered that the thalamus has its strongest connections with the sensorimotor network in elite swimmers with the highest world rankings (career best rank: 1-35). Strikingly, thalamo-sensorimotor functional connections were highly correlated with the swimmers' motor performance excellence, that is, accounting for 41% of the individual variance in best world ranking. Our findings shed light on neural correlates of long-term athletic performance involving thalamo-sensorimotor functional circuits.
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U2 - 10.1155/2017/1473783
DO - 10.1155/2017/1473783
M3 - Article
C2 - 28261504
AN - SCOPUS:85013314022
SN - 2090-5904
VL - 2017
JO - Neural Plasticity
JF - Neural Plasticity
M1 - 1473783
ER -