Senhua Zhu1, Xin Di1, Hua Jin2,
Pin Wang2, Lei Mo2, Ke Zhou3, Yan Zhuo3,
Hengyi Rao4
1Department of Psychology,
Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, People's Republic of; 2Department
of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China,
People's Republic of; 3State Key Laboratory of Brain &
Cognitive Science, Beijing, China, People's Republic of; 4Center
for Functional Neuroimaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA,
United States
This study used both structural and resting functional MRI and investigated brain differences between 20 professional badminton players and 18 controls with voxel based morphometry (VBM) as well as resting functional connectivity analysis. The findings show that badminton athletes have greater gray matter concentration (GMC) and larger amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in the cerebellum than controls. Athlete group also demonstrated reduced ALFF in left superior parietal lobule, and altered parieto-frontal functional connectivity. Such brain changes may reflect enhanced visuomotor coordination skills in professional players after longitudinal badminton training.