Increased Cortical Activity in Novices Compared to Experts During Table Tennis: A Whole-Brain fNIRS Study Using Threshold-Free Cluster Enhancement Analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Cross-sectional comparative study evaluating cortical activity differences between expert and novice cohorts.
PubMed 37119404 · doi:10.1007/s10548-023-00963-y
What was done
Researchers investigated differences in cortical hemodynamics and performance between 35 right-handed table tennis players (17 experts and 18 novices). Participants executed forehand strokes, backhand strokes, and a randomized combination of both. Cortical hemodynamics were recorded via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and analyzed with nonparametric threshold-free cluster enhancement, while target accuracy was assessed using video recordings.
What was found
The abstract reports no exact numerical values, statistical test statistics, or effect sizes. Across all conditions, experts demonstrated higher target accuracy than novices. Novices exhibited broadly higher cortical activation in widespread clusters related to sensorimotor and multisensory integration compared to experts. Task complexity also altered activation patterns across frontal, sensorimotor, and multisensory brain regions.
Why it matters
The findings support the neural efficiency hypothesis in dynamic motor skills, showing that expert athletic performance is associated with reduced cortical resource utilization during task execution.
Limits
The study is limited by a small sample size (35 participants) and a cross-sectional design that cannot distinguish innate neural traits from longitudinal training adaptations. The abstract does not provide quantitative data, confidence intervals, or specific cluster coordinates, and the cohort was restricted to right-handed players under structured experimental conditions.