Characterizing cortical hemodynamic changes during climbing and its relation to climbing expertise

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Sports Science
• Motor Control

Background:

• Bouldering, a complex whole-body activity, demands significant motor coordination.
• While physical aspects are studied, neural activity during climbing remains underexplored.
• Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a motion-artifact-robust method for brain activity assessment during physical tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate hemodynamic response alterations in advanced climbers using fNIRS.
• To compare cortical activation in the sensorimotor area during simple versus moderate bouldering routes.
• To explore the relationship between climbing expertise and neural activity patterns.

Main Methods:

• Utilized fNIRS to measure brain activation in 13 advanced climbers during bouldering.
• Compared cortical activity between simple and moderate climbing routes.
• Performed correlation analysis to link expertise level with hemodynamic responses.

Main Results:

• Repetitive bouldering activated extensive sensorimotor areas, including premotor, supplementary motor, primary motor, and somatosensory cortices.
• Cortical activation levels were consistent across simple and moderate routes, unaffected by task complexity.
• A negative correlation was observed between climbing expertise and hemodynamic response in the supplementary motor region, suggesting motor automaticity.

Conclusions:

• fNIRS is a viable tool for studying neural activity during complex whole-body movements like climbing.
• Climbing engages a broad sensorimotor network, irrespective of task difficulty.
• Increased expertise in bouldering is associated with neural adaptations indicative of enhanced motor automaticity.