Cerasa Antonio, Sarica Alessia, Martino Iolanda, Fabbricatore Carmelo, Tomaiuolo Francesco, Rocca Federico, Caracciolo Manuela, Quattrone Aldo
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Istituto Istruzione Superiore "Mancini", Cosenza, Italy.
PLoS One. 2017 Feb 9;12(2):e0171457. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171457. eCollection 2017.
Chefs exert expert motor and cognitive performances on a daily basis. Neuroimaging has clearly shown that that long-term skill learning (i.e., athletes, musicians, chess player or sommeliers) induces plastic changes in the brain thus enabling tasks to be performed faster and more accurately. How a chef's expertise is embodied in a specific neural network has never been investigated.
Eleven Italian head chefs with long-term brigade management expertise and 11 demographically-/ psychologically- matched non-experts underwent morphological evaluations.
Voxel-based analysis performed with SUIT, as well as, automated volumetric measurement assessed with Freesurfer, revealed increased gray matter volume in the cerebellum in chefs compared to non-experts. The most significant changes were detected in the anterior vermis and the posterior cerebellar lobule. The magnitude of the brigade staff and the higher performance in the Tower of London test correlated with these specific gray matter increases, respectively.
We found that chefs are characterized by an anatomical variability involving the cerebellum. This confirms the role of this region in the development of similar expert brains characterized by learning dexterous skills, such as pianists, rock climbers and basketball players. However, the nature of the cellular events underlying the detected morphological differences remains an open question.
厨师每天都展现出专业的运动和认知表现。神经影像学已明确表明，长期技能学习（如运动员、音乐家、棋手或侍酒师）会引起大脑的可塑性变化，从而使任务执行得更快、更准确。厨师的专业技能是如何体现在特定神经网络中的，此前从未有人研究过。
11名具有长期团队管理经验的意大利主厨和11名在人口统计学/心理学方面与之匹配的非专业人员接受了形态学评估。
使用SUIT进行的基于体素的分析以及使用Freesurfer进行的自动体积测量显示，与非专业人员相比，厨师小脑的灰质体积增加。在小脑蚓部前部和小脑后叶检测到最显著的变化。团队人员数量和伦敦塔测试中的较高表现分别与这些特定灰质增加相关。
我们发现厨师的特点是小脑存在解剖学变异。这证实了该区域在类似以学习灵巧技能为特征的专业大脑（如钢琴家、攀岩者和篮球运动员）发育中的作用。然而，所检测到的形态学差异背后的细胞事件的本质仍是一个悬而未决的问题。
