Increased cerebellar gray matter volume in head chefs.
OBJECTIVE
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.


METHODS
Eleven Italian head chefs with long-term brigade management expertise and 11 demographically-/ psychologically- matched non-experts underwent morphological evaluations.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Antonio
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8022-4770
A
Cerasa
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Alessia
A
Sarica
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Iolanda
I
Martino
Istituto Istruzione Superiore "Mancini", Cosenza, Italy.|Federazione Italiana Cuochi, Rome, Italy.
Carmelo
C
Fabbricatore
Fondazione Volterra Ricerche "Auxilium Vitae", Volterra, Italy.|Unità Operativa di Psicologia Clinica, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria, Pisa, Italy.
Francesco
F
Tomaiuolo
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Federico
F
Rocca
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.
Manuela
M
Caracciolo
Istituto di Bioimmagini e Fisiologia Molecolare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Catanzaro, Italy.|Istituto di Neurologia, Università "Magna Graecia", Catanzaro, Italy.
Aldo
A
Quattrone
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009790:Occupations; D009929:Organ Size; D012147:Restaurants; D000078329:Workforce