Altered spontaneous regional brain activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and visual area of expert table tennis athletes

Sports training may lead to functional changes in the brain, and different types of sports, including table tennis, have different influences on these changes. However, the effects of long-term table tennis practice on brain function in expert athletes are largely undefined. Here, we investigated spontaneous regional brain activity characteristics of expert table tennis athletes by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare differences between 25 athletes and 33 age- and sex-matched non-athletes. We analyzed four metrics—amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), fractional ALFF, regional homogeneity, and degree centrality—because together they identify functional changes in the brain with greater sensitivity than a single indicator and may more comprehensively describe regional functional changes. Additional statistical analysis was conducted to assess whether any correlation existed between brain activity and years of table tennis training for athletes. Results show that compared with non-athletes, table tennis athletes showed altered spontaneous regional brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the calcarine sulcus, a visual area. Furthermore, the functional changes in the calcarine sulcus showed a significant correlation with the number of years of expert sports training. Despite the relatively small sample size, these results indicated that the regional brain function of table tennis athletes was associated with sports training–related changes, providing insights for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the expert performance of athletes. Highlights Resting-state fMRI assessed brain functional activity in expert table tennis athletes. Indicators of whole brain activity included ALFF, fALFF, ReHo, and DC. Compared with non-athletes, athletes showed brain functional plasticity changes. Changes were in prefrontal cortex, calcarine sulcus, and left inferior frontal gyrus. Altered brain functional activity may be caused by long-term sports training.