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Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis

Grey matter volume reductions in the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) were observed in young adults who learned to ride a unicycle. As these decreases were correlated with the acquired ability in unicycling, the authors interpreted the change as a brain tissue reorganization to increase postural...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Riedmann, Uwe, Fink, Andreas, Weber, Bernhard, Koschutnig, Karl
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36009155
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12081092
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author Riedmann, Uwe
Fink, Andreas
Weber, Bernhard
Koschutnig, Karl
author_facet Riedmann, Uwe
Fink, Andreas
Weber, Bernhard
Koschutnig, Karl
author_sort Riedmann, Uwe
collection PubMed
description Grey matter volume reductions in the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) were observed in young adults who learned to ride a unicycle. As these decreases were correlated with the acquired ability in unicycling, the authors interpreted the change as a brain tissue reorganization to increase postural control’s automated and efficient coordination. The current study aims to further corroborate this interpretation by looking at changes in the functional brain network in the very same sample of participants. For this reason, we applied graph theory, a mathematics field used to study network structure functionality. Four global and two local graph-theoretical parameters were calculated to measure whole brain and rSTG specific changes in functional network activity following the three-week-unicycle training. Findings revealed that the Local Efficiency of the rSTG was significantly elevated after the intervention indicating an increase in fault tolerance of the rSTG, possibly reflecting decentralisation of rSTG specific functions to neighbouring nodes. Thus, the increased Local Efficiency may indicate increased task efficiency by decentralising the processing of functions crucial for balance.
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spelling pubmed-94058692022-08-26 Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis Riedmann, Uwe Fink, Andreas Weber, Bernhard Koschutnig, Karl Brain Sci Article Grey matter volume reductions in the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) were observed in young adults who learned to ride a unicycle. As these decreases were correlated with the acquired ability in unicycling, the authors interpreted the change as a brain tissue reorganization to increase postural control’s automated and efficient coordination. The current study aims to further corroborate this interpretation by looking at changes in the functional brain network in the very same sample of participants. For this reason, we applied graph theory, a mathematics field used to study network structure functionality. Four global and two local graph-theoretical parameters were calculated to measure whole brain and rSTG specific changes in functional network activity following the three-week-unicycle training. Findings revealed that the Local Efficiency of the rSTG was significantly elevated after the intervention indicating an increase in fault tolerance of the rSTG, possibly reflecting decentralisation of rSTG specific functions to neighbouring nodes. Thus, the increased Local Efficiency may indicate increased task efficiency by decentralising the processing of functions crucial for balance. MDPI 2022-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9405869/ /pubmed/36009155 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12081092 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Riedmann, Uwe
Fink, Andreas
Weber, Bernhard
Koschutnig, Karl
Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title_full Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title_fullStr Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title_short Functional Connectivity as an Index of Brain Changes Following a Unicycle Intervention: A Graph-Theoretical Network Analysis
title_sort functional connectivity as an index of brain changes following a unicycle intervention: a graph-theoretical network analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36009155
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12081092
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