中国科学院心理健康重点实验室知识库

Purpose: Several recent studies have identified structural changes in the cerebral cortex that occur with extensive motor training. However, limited studies have been conducted to explore the structural changes of subcortical structures, which are thought to play important roles in motor functioning. This study aims to localize the shape differences of the subcortical structures between the diving players and the nonathlete group. Methods: Twelve professional players with top-level diving skills and 12 age- and education-matched healthy controls without any training experience were scanned with a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging. Data were processed using FSL-FIRST, a model-based segmentation and registration tool. Results: Compared with the nonathlete group, we found significant regional inflation in the bilateral thalamus and the left globus pallidus in diving players. Conclusion: Although we cannot rule out the effect of predispositions, the regional inflation of the thalamus and globus pallidus might reflect the experience-dependent plasticity because of extensive diving training.

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81101000, 91132728, and 31200794), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. ZYGX2011J098), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. KSCX2-EW-J-8), and the Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The authors thank Shi-Yu Zhang of the University of Minnesota for editorial assistance. The authors do not have any conflict of interest.