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Dissociable plasticity of visual-motor system in functional specialization and flexibility in expert table tennis players

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Abstract

Specialization and flexibility are two basic attributes of functional brain organization, enabling efficient cognition and behavior. However, it is largely unknown what plastic changes in specialization and flexibility in visual-motor areas occur in support of extraordinary motor skills in expert athletes and how the selective adaptability of the visual-motor system affects general perceptual or cognitive domains. Here, we used a dynamic network framework to investigate intrinsic functional specialization and flexibility of visual-motor system in expert table tennis players (TTP). Our results showed that sensorimotor areas increased intrinsic functional flexibility, whereas visual areas increased intrinsic functional specialization in expert TTP compared to nonathletes. Moreover, the flexibility of the left putamen was positively correlated with skill level, and that of the left lingual gyrus was positively correlated with behavioral accuracy of a sport-unrelated attention task. This study has uncovered dissociable plasticity of the visual-motor system and their predictions of individual differences in skill level and general attention processing. Furthermore, our time-resolved analytic approach is applicable across other professional athletes for understanding their brain plasticity and superior behavior.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Codes used in this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC1310400); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600869, 81471651, 11835003). We also would like to thank Drs. Xiuyan Guo, Xiaolin Zhou, Shuguang Kuai, and Li Zheng for their discussions and suggestions during the preparation of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Dazhi Yin & Qing Cai

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Xuefei Wang, Qiurong Yu, Yu Wei & Mingxia Fan

  3. Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Xiaoyou Zhang & Lin Li

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  1. Dazhi Yin
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  2. Xuefei Wang
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Contributions

DZY, LL, MXF, and QC designed the research. XFW, XYZ, QRY, and YW collected experimental data. DZY analysed data and wrote the draft manuscript. All authors provided feedback on the manuscript.

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Yin, D., Wang, X., Zhang, X. et al. Dissociable plasticity of visual-motor system in functional specialization and flexibility in expert table tennis players. Brain Struct Funct 226, 1973–1990 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02304-w

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