Experience-Dependent Plasticity of Cerebellar Vermis in Basketball Players

Park, I., Lee, K., Han, J., Lee, N., Lee, W., Park, K., & Rhyu, I. (2009). Experience-Dependent Plasticity of Cerebellar Vermis in Basketball Players. Cerebellum, 8(3), 334-339.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.  doi:10.1007/s12311-009-0100-1

Chapter 14 in our textbook discusses experience-dependent change or plasticity in the brain.  This chapter concluded that certain experiences that we have could produce changes in the synaptic organization, dendritic growth, and neuron development of the brain.  These changes ultimately form the basic structure of our memory.  The purpose of this study was to see if there was any alteration in cerebellum volume in basketball players who had learned and practiced complex motor skills for a long period of time.  Motor learning is acquiring new skills and movements through practice, and the cerebellum plays an important role in learning motor skills.  In this study, nineteen male basketball players from various universities in Korea were designated as the athletic group, or AG.  Twenty individuals were recruited from Korea University web pages and were designated as the control group, or CG.  MRI volumetry was performed on all of the participants to compare the cerebellum and vermian lobes of the two groups.  In the AG, results showed that there was not plasticity found in the cerebellum as a whole, which contradicted some previous research studies.  There was, however, evidence of sub-regional plasticity in vermian lobules VI-VII in the cerebellum in this group.  This study suggested that there is a link between continuous practicing of a complex motor skill and brain plasticity.  With future explorations in sports and brain plasticity, our knowledge will continue to increase on this topic.  If I had to make a suggestion to a possible idea for future research in this subject matter, I would propose to compare all different types of sports to see if brain plasticity in the cerebellum varies among them.