The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Reflex Uncoupling in Dancers
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Nigmatullina, Y
Hellyer, PJ
Nachev, P
Sharp, DJ
Seemungal, BM
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Sensory input evokes low-order reflexes and higher-order perceptual responses. Vestibular stimulation elicits vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) and self-motion perception (e.g., vertigo) whose response durations are normally equal. Adaptation to repeated whole-body rotations, for example, ballet training, is known to reduce vestibular responses. We investigated the neuroanatomical correlates of vestibular perceptuo-reflex adaptation in ballet dancers and controls. Dancers' vestibular-reflex and perceptual responses to whole-body yaw-plane step rotations were: (1) Briefer and (2) uncorrelated (controls' reflex and perception were correlated). Voxel-based morphometry showed a selective gray matter (GM) reduction in dancers' vestibular cerebellum correlating with ballet experience. Dancers' vestibular cerebellar GM density reduction was related to shorter perceptual responses (i.e. positively correlated) but longer VOR duration (negatively correlated). Contrastingly, controls' vestibular cerebellar GM density negatively correlated with perception and VOR. Diffusion-tensor imaging showed that cerebral cortex white matter (WM) microstructure correlated with vestibular perception but only in controls. In summary, dancers display vestibular perceptuo-reflex dissociation with the neuronatomical correlate localized to the vestibular cerebellum. Controls' robust vestibular perception correlated with a cortical WM network conspicuously absent in dancers. Since primary vestibular afferents synapse in the vestibular cerebellum, we speculate that a cerebellar gating of perceptual signals to cortical regions mediates the training-related attenuation of vestibular perception and perceptuo-reflex uncoupling.
Date Issued
2013-09-26
Date Acceptance
2013-09-01
Citation
Cerebral Cortex, 2013, 25 (2), pp.554-562
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
554
End Page
562
Journal / Book Title
Cerebral Cortex
Volume
25
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
The Academy of Medical Sciences
Grant Number
G0701951
N/A
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Neurosciences
Neurosciences & Neurology
Dancers
Perceptuo-reflex uncoupling
Training
Vestibular-ocular reflex
Adaptation, Physiological
Cerebellum
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Organ Size
Practice (Psychology)
Psychophysics
Reflex, Vestibulo-Ocular
Humans
Gray Matter
Experimental Psychology
Cognitive Science
Publication Status
Published