ArticleNeural plasticity2016
Differences in Cortical Representation and Structural Connectivity of Hands and Feet between Professional Handball Players and Ballet Dancers.
Article in Neural plasticity, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Diffusion Imaging of Sport-related Repetitive Head Impacts-A Systematic Review.Neuropsychology review · 2023Pooled it
- Differences in Anatomical Structures and Resting-State Brain Networks Between Elite Wrestlers and Handball Athletes.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- The cognitive neuroscience and neurocognitive rehabilitation of dance.BMC neuroscience · 2024Review
- Article
- Practice makes plasticity: 10-Hz rTMS enhances LTP-like plasticity in musicians and athletes.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2023Article
- Regional brain atrophy in patients with chronic ankle instability: A voxel-based morphometry study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation reduces motor slowing in athletes and non-athletes.BMC neuroscience · 2020Article
- Neurodiagnostics in Sports: Investigating the Athlete's Brain to Augment Performance and Sport-Specific Skills.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- Future Portrait of the Athletic Brain: Mechanistic Understanding of Human Sport PerformanceFrontiers in systems neuroscience · 2020Article
- Dance on the Brain: Enhancing Intra- and Inter-Brain Synchrony.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- An Integrative Approach to Study Structural and Functional Network Connectivity in Epilepsy Using Imaging and Signal Data.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2020Article
- Changes in neurovascular coupling during cycling exercise measured by multi-distance fNIRS: a comparison between endurance athletes and physically active controls.Experimental brain research · 2019Article
- Bilateral engagement of the occipito-temporal cortex in response to dance kinematics in experts.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of Primary Motor Cortex on Reaction Time and Tapping Performance: A Comparison Between Athletes and Non-athletes.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Article
- Nonlinear neuroplasticity corresponding to sports experience: A voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity study.Human brain mapping · 2018Article
- Functional and Structural Plasticity of Brain in Elite Karate Athletes.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2018Article
- Vestibulo-Hippocampal Function Is Enhanced and Brain Structure Altered in Professional Ballet Dancers.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2018Article
- Motor learning in a complex balance task and associated neuroplasticity: a comparison between endurance athletes and nonathletes.Journal of neurophysiology · 2017Article
- The Dancing Brain: Structural and Functional Signatures of Expert Dance Training.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is known that intensive training and expertise are associated with functional and structural neuroadaptations. Most studies, however, compared experts with nonexperts; hence it is, specifically for sports, unclear whether the neuroplastic adaptations reported are sport-specific or sport-general. Here we aimed at investigating sport-specific adaptations in professional handball players and ballet dancers by focusing on the primary motor and somatosensory grey matter (GM) representation of hands and feet using voxel-based morphometry as well as on fractional anisotropy (FA) of the corticospinal tract by means of diffusion tensor imaging-based fibre tractography. As predicted, GM volume was increased in hand areas of handball players, whereas ballet dancers showed increased GM volume in foot areas. Compared to handball players, ballet dancers showed decreased FA in both fibres connecting the foot and hand areas, but they showed lower FA in fibres connecting the foot compared to their hand areas, whereas handball players showed lower FA in fibres connecting the hand compared to their foot areas. Our results suggest that structural adaptations are sport-specific and are manifested in brain regions associated with the neural processing of sport-specific skills. We believe this enriches the plasticity research in general and extends our knowledge of sport expertise in particular.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.