Fourkas Alissa D, Bonavolontà Valerio, Avenanti Alessio, Aglioti Salvatore M
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli studi di Roma La Sapienza, I-00185 Roma, Italia.
Cereb Cortex. 2008 Oct;18(10):2382-90. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn005. Epub 2008 Feb 21.
Specific physical or mental practice may induce short- and long-term neuroplastic changes in the motor system and cause tools to become part of one's own body representation. Athletes who use tools as part of their practice may be an excellent model for assessing the neural correlates of possible bodily representation changes that are specific to extensive practice. We used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure corticospinal excitability in forearm and hand muscles of expert tennis players and novices while they mentally practiced a tennis forehand, table tennis forehand, and a golf drive. The muscles of expert tennis players showed increased corticospinal facilitation during motor imagery of tennis but not golf or table tennis. Novices, although athletes, were not modulated across sports. Subjective reports indicated that only in the tennis imagery condition did experts differ from novices in the ability to form proprioceptive images and to consider the tool as an extension of the hand. Neurophysiological and subjective data converge to suggest a key role of long-term experience in modulating sensorimotor body representations during mental simulation of sports.
特定的身体或心理练习可能会在运动系统中引发短期和长期的神经可塑性变化，并使工具成为个体自身身体表征的一部分。将工具作为练习一部分的运动员可能是评估因大量练习而产生的特定身体表征变化的神经关联的绝佳模型。我们使用单脉冲经颅磁刺激来测量专业网球运动员和新手在前臂和手部肌肉中的皮质脊髓兴奋性，同时他们在脑海中练习网球正手击球、乒乓球正手击球和高尔夫球开球。专业网球运动员的肌肉在进行网球运动想象时皮质脊髓兴奋性增强，但在进行高尔夫或乒乓球运动想象时则没有。新手虽然也是运动员，但在不同运动之间并没有出现这种调节。主观报告表明，只有在网球想象条件下，专家在形成本体感觉图像以及将工具视为手的延伸的能力方面与新手存在差异。神经生理学和主观数据共同表明，长期经验在运动心理模拟过程中调节感觉运动身体表征方面起着关键作用。
