Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level.
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 exper...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4469455?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1830405537633665024 |
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| author | Marco Taubert Uwe Wenzel Bogdan Draganski Stefan J Kiebel Patrick Ragert Jürgen Krug Arno Villringer |
| author_facet | Marco Taubert Uwe Wenzel Bogdan Draganski Stefan J Kiebel Patrick Ragert Jürgen Krug Arno Villringer |
| author_sort | Marco Taubert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T17:47:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-db3d89a4fdf649f99c4c2cb9de4e98eb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T17:47:45Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-db3d89a4fdf649f99c4c2cb9de4e98eb2022-12-21T19:30:56ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01106e012950810.1371/journal.pone.0129508Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level.Marco TaubertUwe WenzelBogdan DraganskiStefan J KiebelPatrick RagertJürgen KrugArno VillringerIn 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.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4469455?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Marco Taubert Uwe Wenzel Bogdan Draganski Stefan J Kiebel Patrick Ragert Jürgen Krug Arno Villringer Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. PLoS ONE |
| title | Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. |
| title_full | Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. |
| title_fullStr | Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. |
| title_short | Investigating Neuroanatomical Features in Top Athletes at the Single Subject Level. |
| title_sort | investigating neuroanatomical features in top athletes at the single subject level |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4469455?pdf=render |
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