ArticleJournal of exercise science and fitness2025
Neural correlates of basketball proficiency: An MRI study across skill levels.
Article in Journal of exercise science and fitness, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review and coordinate-based meta-analysis of resting-state fMRI in athletes from open and closed skills sports.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Structural and Network Adaptations in Visuospatial Cortical Regions of Elite Soccer Players: A Morphometric and Structural Covariance Network Study.Brain topography · 2026Article
- Differences in Anatomical Structures and Resting-State Brain Networks Between Elite Wrestlers and Handball Athletes.Brain sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Basketball is an attractive sport required both cooperative and antagonistic motor skills. However, the neural mechanism of basketball proficiency remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the brain functional and structural substrates underlying varying levels of basketball capacity. Methods: Twenty advanced basketball athletes (AB), 20 intermediate basketball athletes (IB) and 20 age-matched non-athlete individuals without basketball experience (NI) participated in this study and underwent T1-weighted MRI and resting-state fMRI scanning. Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC), amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and gray matter (GM) density were calculated and compared among the three groups. Results: The VMHC in the bilateral postcentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus, as well as the GM density in the right precentral gyrus, exhibited a hierarchical structure of AB > IB > NI. Compared with NI group, AB and IB groups showed strengthened VMHC in supplementary motor area, paracentral lobule and superior frontal gyrus. Additionally, the ALFF of left middle occipital gyrus and right hippocampal and the GM density of left medial superior frontal gyrus exhibited differences in AB-IB and AB-NI comparisons. Conclusions: By conducting the cross-sectional comparison, this study firstly identifies the varying levels of basketball proficiency related brain resting-state functional and structural plasticity. Especially, the regions associated with motor perception and control, including bilateral postcentral gyrus, middle and superior temporal gyrus and right precentral gyrus, are involved in the key neural mechanisms of basketball proficiency. Future longitudinal studies are necessary to further validate these findings.
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