Abstract
Objective
To investigate the effect of long-term Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) practice on practitioners’
brain functional specialization compare with the TCC novices.
Design
A cross-sectional study.
Setting
A psychology Institute.
Participants
TCC practitioners (N=22) (52.4±6.8y; 7 men; educated years: 12.18±3.03y) and 18 healthy
adults (54.8±6.8y; 8 men; education years: 11.78±2.90y) matched by age, sex, and education
were enrolled.
Main Outcome Measures
Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning and cognitive
test to measure the differences in functional specialization and cognitive function.
Functional specialization was evaluated by voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC)
method.
Results
Lower middle frontal gyrus VMHC in TCC practitioners compared to controls. For TCC
practitioners, the longer they practice, the lower their VMHC in precentral and precuneus.
TCC practitioners showed better cognition performance.
Conclusions
Changed VMHC indicated that TCC practice could enhance functional specialization in
the middle frontal cortex of practitioners, which may be associated with higher-order
cognitive ability.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
ANT (attention network test), DPARSF (Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI), FC (functional connectivity), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), MFG (middle frontal gyrus), MNI (Montreal Neurological Institute), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), NCT (number cancellation test), TCC (Tai Chi Chuan), VMHC (voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 25, 2020
Footnotes
Supported by the Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Foundation of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. Y9CX402008), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31671163).
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
