The Psychological Distinction of Athlete's Brains

"Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!" [1]. It’s moments as great as this one that make us wonder what could possibly be occurring inside the brain at that instant. During a time as stressful as game seven of the NBA Finals, where the situation is win or go home, it is necessary for the brain to perform at its utmost ability. The anxiety, pressure, fans, cameras, coaches yelling, and the sounds around each athlete at that moment is at an all-time high. This forces the brain to work overtime to ensure a successful performance. It is in this specific moment that the brain elicits a natural response to quickly decide a play that could alter the trajectory of the entire game. The motor cortex greatly impacts how athletes perform by commanding motor skills, such as coordinated movements, while establishing focus and maintaining healthy mental stability.

COGNITIVE DISTINCTIONS 

Have you ever watched an athlete perform a difficult task and thought to yourself, how does their body move in order to execute specific actions? This is due to our brain’s use of motor skills. Motor skills are functions that involve the precise movement of muscles with the intent of performing a specific act [2]. These coordinated movements are produced in an area of the brain known as the primary motor cortex. In the frontal lobe of the brain, highly specialized brain cells called motor neurons are responsible for planning and initiating voluntary movements [3]. These coordinated and voluntary movements can vary from simple functions such as waving your hand to highly complex functions such as all movements involved in playing a sport. This area of the brain provides the most important signal for production of skilled movements [4]. In specific sports, such as football, a player’s performance is dependent upon their cognitive, perceptive, and motor abilities [5]. Fundamental motor skills are elements of such sports that involve passing, running, receiving, and shooting. Athletes can be measured on motor skills with a tool known as fundamental motor skills (FMS). This includes locomotive, balance, and manipulative skills. In a study done with five-to-seven-year-old members of karate clubs, researchers found that those with a higher level of FMS demonstrate a higher level of karate technique in their sport, while those with lower levels of FMS have difficulties in acquiring the same karate-specific techniques [6]. Motor skills seem to be more developed in those who exhibit greater techniques for their respective sports. Therefore, the impact and importance of motor skills in game performances is crucial to the development of athletic abilities.

MUSCLE MEMORY

Is athletic performance linked directly to cognitive thinking, or is it more intertwined with muscle memory? Previous studies have shown that repeated or long-term training leads to long-lasting changes in the neuronal firing rate of the primary motor cortex [7]. Since the primary motor cortex is involved with issuing specific bodily acts, repetition or long-term training can lead to the greater expansion development of the primary motor cortex, allowing for a higher level of FMS [7]. An extensive part of an athlete’s life is to use the offseason (the time in which their sport is not being played) in order to practice and train.The off season may allow the primary motor cortex to expand and progress in direct alignment with the newly learned techniques within their respective sport. The primary motor cortex also aligns with long-term training, meaning a continuous period of training over time, as well as memory. Muscle memory is also associated with the primary motor cortex, a term used to define when a motor skill is committed to memory [8]. An experiment on athletes found that a few minutes of daily practice on a sequential finger task induces large, incremental performance gains over a few weeks of training [9]. In this experiment, researchers witnessed that after a few weeks of training the exact same finger task, it enabled repetition and practice which allowed connections in the primary motor cortex to be strengthened [9]. This notion was supported by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data showing that a more extensive representation of the finger task they trained with emerged in the primary motor cortex after only three weeks of training. This information concluded from the study suggests that athletes who are practicing for much longer, with more demanding hours of the day, and even during the offseason, are advancing their area for muscle memory. Furthermore, this data suggests that with continuous practice and repetition in athletic training, development of the motor cortex was not only evident in specified performance, but brain scans also showed that the primary motor cortex was extensively developing. 

PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX DEVELOPMENT & PLASTICITY 

How exactly does the primary motor cortex develop and grow over time? The primary motor cortex (PMC) is a specialized area of the brain located in the front of the central sulcus that provides the most important signals for the production of skilled movements [4]. In a study conducted on primary motor cortex excitability in karate athletes, changes in the cortex and response were examined. In order to investigate how changes occurred in the motor cortex, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and neuroimaging techniques were used [10]. These techniques use magnetic fields in order to stimulate nerve cells in the brain or to cause electric currents in a specific region of the brain [11]. As mentioned before, a common investigation of repetition and muscle memory in athletes is to conduct a repetitive model such as ballistic movements of the fingers. This repetitive training is associated with an immediate increase in motor evoked potential (MEP) response [10]. MEP responds to the time taken of impulses in order to reach the desired muscle in movement. Depending on how fast MEP is, the faster the motor cortex can designate a certain muscle for movement. This response relates directly to the primary motor cortex because the MEP response is used to assess the conduction time along the central motor pathways [12]. Along with help from TMS, MEP recordings can be used for the representation of muscles within the motor cortex, directly showing the growth or extensive amplification of MEP [12]. Also, it was shown in cross-sectional studies that there are similar changes of aspects that comprise the primary motor cortex amongst athletes with different degrees of motor skills [13]. The similarity in the changes are attributed to neural changes that are known to contribute to some forms of motor learning. This evidence suggests that athletes who have different degrees of motor skills, have similar aspects in how they attribute to their motor learning, showing how complex the PMC truly is and how it can change and expand at any time [12]. 

Similar to how plasticity revolves around the ability to shape or mold to specific situations, neural plasticity is the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to stimuli or connections [14]. In a research study done with paralympic participants in water-related sports, scientists found that mechanisms underlying higher motor function in water are likely due to cortical reorganization resulting from use-dependent plasticity and reinforcement mechanisms that were induced from long-term repetitive training [15]. This study suggests that plasticity and the tendency for the primary motor cortex to expand and change is also related to long-term training. Therefore proposing that athletes who implement long-term training into their sport, will help expand the primary motor cortex allowing for greater athletic performance.

ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE BY THE MOTOR CORTEX

When athletes play well or have a great game, it is common to hear them receiving compliments about their performance and how “fast” they played, or how “aggressive” they played. No one ever really will compliment them for their intellect or how their brain impacted their performance. This is because we do not normally expect the brain to be playing a massive role in physical performance. While there are instances in which athletes are stronger physically, it is also normal for them to have a more developed motor cortex that allows them to perform at a higher level. The primary motor cortex plays an immense role in how the brain and body perform and memorize certain tactics and skills in sports in order to establish coordinated movements. 

The motor cortex is an imminent part of the functioning brain and essential to performance. A specific part of the motor cortex that allows for such a role deals with the motor skills that are coordinated movements that can perform a specific act [2]. Even more specifically, motor neurons become responsible for planning these voluntary movements [3]. This connects to how athletes perform athletically because motor abilities are needed for many sports [5]. Memorization and muscle memory is strengthened through long-term training which leads to long lasting changes in the motor cortex, showing that long-term training can develop the motor cortex [7]. The motor cortex also develops over time and certain muscles within the cortex can grow and amplify through repetition of movements [12]. Most athletes are aware of the over-used and cliche quote “practice makes perfect” and are probably tired of it at this point, but it seems as if the motor cortex is living up to this quote because of the need for repetition and long-term training in sports. Athletes can eventually focus on developing certain aspects of their motor cortex and motor neuron firing rate through long-term training in order to increase their performance ability and overall mentality.

References:

1. McMenamin, D. (2016, June 27). When Lebron swooped in and changed the course of cavs' history. ESPN. Retrieved February 1, 2022, https://www.espn.com/nba/playoffs/2016/story/_/id/16544563/nba-finals-2016-oral-history-lebron-chasedown-block

2. What are motor skills? (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.educlime.com/wharemosk.html

3. Purves, Dale. “The Primary Motor Cortex: Upper Motor Neurons That Initiate Complex Voluntary Movements.” Neuroscience. 2nd Edition., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10962/.

4. Sira, C.S., and C.A. Mateer. “Primary Motor Cortex.” Primary Motor Cortex - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences Second Edition, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008045046-9.01316-4. 

5. Ali, A. (2011). Measuring soccer skill performance: a review. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 21(2), 170-183.  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01256.x.

6. Kokstejn, Jakub, et al. “Fundamental Motor Skills Mediate the Relationship between Physical Fitness and Soccer-Specific Motor Skills in Young Soccer Players.” Frontiers in Physiology, Frontiers Media S.A., 28 May 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00596. 

7. Hiroki Nakata, Michiko Yoshie, Akito Miura, Kazutoshi Kudo, Characteristics of the athletes' brain: Evidence from neurophysiology and neuroimaging, Brain Research Reviews, Volume 62, Issue 2,2010,Pages 197-211, ISSN 0165-0173, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresrev.2009.11.006.

8. Yusuf, Salama. “Muscle Memory: Do Your Muscles Really Remember a Skill?” Science ABC, 16 Jan. 2022, https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/what-is-muscle-memory-new.html.

9. Karni, Avi, et al. “The Acquisition of Skilled Motor Performance: Fast and Slow Experience-Driven Changes in Primary Motor Cortex.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 3 Feb. 1998, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.3.861. 

10. Pascual-Leone, A., et al. “Modulation of Muscle Responses Evoked by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation during the Acquisition of New Fine Motor Skills.” Journal of Neurophysiology, 1 Sept. 1995, https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.1995.74.3.1037. 

11. Mayo Clinic Staff. “Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 27 Nov. 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation/about/pac-20384625#:~:text=Transcranial%20magnetic%20stimulation%20(TMS)%20is,treatments%20haven%27t%20been%20effective. 

12. Abbruzzese, G., & Trompetto, C. (2017). Motor evoked potential. Motor Evoked Potential - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. Retrieved April 6, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385157-4.01109-X.

13. Selvanayagam, Victor S., et al. “Early Neural Responses to Strength Training.” Journal of Applied Physiology, 1 Aug. 2011, https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00064.2011.

14. Mateos-Aparicio, Pedro, and Antonio Rodríguez-Moreno. “The Impact of Studying Brain Plasticity.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00066.  

15. Nakazawa, Kimitaka. “Brain Reorganization and Neural Plasticity in Elite... : Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews.” LWW American College of Sports Medicine, Exercise and Sport Science Reviews, 16 Feb. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000288.