Abstract
Evidence from recent studies on animals and humans suggest that neural overflow from the primary sensory cortex (S1) to the primary motor cortex (M1) may play a critical role in motor control. However, it is unclear if whole-body maximal motor tasks are also governed by this mechanism. Maximum vertical squat jumps were performed by 15 young adults before cooling, then immediately following a 15-min cooling period using an ice-water bath for the foot soles, and finally immediately following a 15-min period of natural recovery from cooling. Jump heights were, on average, 3.1 cm lower immediately following cooling compared to before cooling (p = 3.39 × 10−8) and 1.9 cm lower following natural recovery from cooling (p = 0.00124). The average vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) was also lower by 78.2 N in the condition immediately following cooling compared to before cooling (p = 8.1 × 10−5) and 56.7N lower following natural recovery from cooling (p = 0.0043). The current study supports the S1-to-M1 overflow mechanism in a whole-body dynamic jump.
Highlights
The understanding of sensory processing and motor outputs in the central nervous system (CNS) has long been a vast topic of study
An a priori power analysis indicated that approximately 13 participants were needed to detect differences in the variables of interest related to vertical squat jumps with effect sizes of at least d = 0.60 as statistical significance with α = 0.05 and β = 0.80 (G*Power 3.1, Kiel, Germany)
Pre-takeoff vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) impulse was lower in the cooled condition compared to the baseline condition (142.1 ± 40.7 Ns vs. 152.7 ± 38.9 Ns, p = 2.16 × 10−8, effect sizes (ES) = 0.26) and the recovered condition (148.5 ± 41.2 Ns, p = 0.000672, ES = 0.16)
Summary
The understanding of sensory processing and motor outputs in the central nervous system (CNS) has long been a vast topic of study. During the mid 20th century it was discovered that sensory and motor function occupy distinct spatial locations in the cerebral cortex, with the mapping often referred to as the sensory and motor homunculi, respectively (Penfield and Boldrey, 1937; Penfield and Rasmussen, 1950). At the end of the 20th century, the somatotopic organization of the motor cortex hand area was more closely examined and demonstrated evidence of spatial overlap of cortical territories for movement of different finger digits in non-human primates (Schieber and Hibbard, 1993). Rodent studies have shown neuroanatomical connections between the designated ‘‘sensory’’ and ‘‘motor’’ areas of the brain. Overlapping sensory and motor representations have been observed in the rodent hind limb (Donoghue and Wise, 1982).
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