title: Increased cortical thickness in sports experts: a comparison of diving players with the controls.
abstract: Sports experts represent a population of people who have acquired expertise in sports training and competition. Recently, the number of studies on sports experts has increased; however, neuroanatomical changes following extensive training are not fully understood. In this study, we used cortical thickness measurement to investigate the brain anatomical characteristics of professional divers with extensive training experience. A comparison of the brain anatomical characteristics of the non-athlete group with those of the athlete group revealed three regions with significantly increased cortical thickness in the athlete group. These regions included the left superior temporal sulcus, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the mean cortical thickness of the right parahippocampal gyrus and the training experience was detected, which might indicate the effect of extensive training on diving players' brain structure.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Gaoxia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yuanchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D056352:Athletes; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002648:Child; D004242:Diving / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D009929:Organ Size; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011361:Professional Competence; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*