Brain structure in diving players on MR imaging studied with voxel-based morphometry

We adopted professional diving players as a typical subject pool to explore whether structural brain differences relative to motor skill acquisition exist between highly skilled athletes and non-athletes. Based on the voxel-based morphometric (VBM) technique, structural MRIs of the brains of 12 elite diving players with professional training were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects without any professional physical training. Diving players showed significantly increased gray matter density in the thalamus and left precentral gyrus than control subjects. However, future researches are needed to prove the contribution of preposition and practice. It also suggests that athletes as the subject pool could form a new subject pool to explore plastic change induced by motor skill acquisition. (C) 2009 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved.