Abstract
Background and Objective: Life-long balance training has been shown to affect brain structure, including the hippocampus. Data are missing in this respect on professional ballet dancers of both genders. It is also unknown whether transfer effects exist on general balancing as well as spatial orientation abilities, a function mainly supported by the hippocampus. We aimed to assess differences in gray matter (GM) structure, general balancing skills, and spatial orientation skills between professional ballet dancers and non-dancers.Methods: Nineteen professional ballet dancers aged 18–35 (27.5 ± 4.1 years; 10 females) and nineteen age-matched non-dancers (26.5 ± 2.1 years; 10 females) were investigated. Main outcomes assessed were the score of a 30-item clinical balance test (CBT), the average error distance (in centimeters) on triangle completion task, and difference in GM density as seen by voxel-based morphometric analysis (VBM, SPM).Results: Ballet group performed significantly better on all conditions of the CBT and in the wheelchair (vestibular-dependent) condition of the spatial orientation test. Larger GM volumes for ballet dancers were observed in the right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and cingulate motor cortex, whereas both larger and smaller volumes were detected within cerebellum bilaterally in comparison to non-dancers.Conclusion: Our results indicate that life-long ballet training could lead to better clinically relevant balancing abilities as well as vestibular-dependent spatial orientation capabilities; both of the benefits might be caused by positive influence of ballet training on the vestibular system function, and—possibly—its connectivity with temporal lobe regions responsible for vestibular-dependent orienting in space.
Highlights
Ballet dancing does require the coordination of complex movement patterns and demanding in terms of the processing of vestibular input and maintaining balance
The results demonstrated that ballet dancers performed significantly better on this test, by having smaller error in both distance and angle, which was mainly attributable to their better performance on the wheelchair condition
Ballet dancers do have larger gray matter (GM) volumes in regions that contribute to balance and spatial orientation abilities, such as the posterior cerebellum and the vermis, insula, and hippocampal and parahippocampal regions, when compared to non-dancers; effects in the opposite direction, i.e., smaller GM volumes, were found in the cerebellar anterior lobes
Summary
Ballet dancing does require the coordination of complex movement patterns and demanding in terms of the processing of vestibular input and maintaining balance. One study on professional ballet dancers, together with slackliners and ice-skaters, has demonstrated structural differences in temporal brain regions, the hippocampus, compared to normal controls (Hüfner et al, 2011). Another study reported decrements in gray matter (GM) of several brain regions (Hänggi et al, 2010), including both cortical and subcortical structures, but the cohort consisted of only female ballet dancers, whose brain and development have already been shown to differ from that of males (Giedd et al, 1999; Good et al, 2001). Data are missing in this respect on professional ballet dancers of both genders It is unknown whether transfer effects exist on general balancing as well as spatial orientation abilities, a function mainly supported by the hippocampus. We aimed to assess differences in gray matter (GM) structure, general balancing skills, and spatial orientation skills between professional ballet dancers and non-dancers
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