Sugino Hirotaka, Ushiyama Junichi
Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan.
Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan.
Front Sports Act Living. 2021 Nov 4;3:757308. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2021.757308. eCollection 2021.
Previous psychological studies using questionnaires have consistently reported that athletes have superior motor imagery ability, both for sports-specific and for sports-non-specific movements. However, regarding motor imagery of sports-non-specific movements, no physiological studies have demonstrated differences in neural activity between athletes and non-athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in sensorimotor rhythms during kinesthetic motor imagery (KMI) of sports-non-specific movements between gymnasts and non-gymnasts. We selected gymnasts as an example population because they are likely to have particularly superior motor imagery ability due to frequent usage of motor imagery, including KMI as part of daily practice. Healthy young participants (16 gymnasts and 16 non-gymnasts) performed repeated motor execution and KMI of sports-non-specific movements (wrist dorsiflexion and shoulder abduction of the dominant hand). Scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded over the contralateral sensorimotor cortex. During motor execution and KMI, sensorimotor EEG power is known to decrease in the α- (8-15 Hz) and β-bands (16-35 Hz), referred to as event-related desynchronization (ERD). We calculated the maximal peak of ERD both in the α- (αERDmax) and β-bands (βERDmax) as a measure of changes in corticospinal excitability. αERDmax was significantly greater in gymnasts, who subjectively evaluated their KMI as being more vivid in the psychological questionnaire. On the other hand, βERDmax was greater in gymnasts only for shoulder abduction KMI. These findings suggest gymnasts' signature of flexibly modulating sensorimotor rhythms with no movements, which may be the basis of their superior ability of KMI for sports-non-specific movements.
以往使用问卷进行的心理学研究一致报告称，运动员在特定运动和非特定运动的运动想象能力方面均更胜一筹。然而，关于非特定运动的运动想象，尚无生理学研究表明运动员与非运动员在神经活动上存在差异。本研究的目的是检验体操运动员和非体操运动员在非特定运动的动觉运动想象（KMI）过程中感觉运动节律的差异。我们选择体操运动员作为样本人群，因为他们由于频繁使用运动想象，包括将KMI作为日常训练的一部分，可能具有特别卓越的运动想象能力。健康的年轻参与者（16名体操运动员和16名非体操运动员）对非特定运动（优势手的腕背屈和肩外展）进行了重复的运动执行和KMI。在对侧感觉运动皮层记录头皮脑电图（EEG）。在运动执行和KMI过程中，已知感觉运动EEG功率在α波段（8 - 15Hz）和β波段（16 - 35Hz）会降低，这被称为事件相关去同步化（ERD）。我们计算了α波段（αERDmax）和β波段（βERDmax）中ERD的最大峰值，作为皮质脊髓兴奋性变化的指标。在心理问卷中主观评价自己的KMI更生动的体操运动员，其αERDmax显著更大。另一方面，仅在肩外展KMI时，体操运动员的βERDmax更大。这些发现表明，体操运动员具有在无运动情况下灵活调节感觉运动节律的特征，这可能是他们在非特定运动的KMI方面具有卓越能力的基础。
