Data Sheet 1_Complex motor imagery in elite female ice hockey players: a cortical arena of imagination revealed by magnetoencephalography.pdf

Motor imagery (MI), or “visualization,” as practiced by elite athletes to improve performance, provides a model of how covert thought—imagination—can affect subsequent behavior. In this exploratory magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, we aimed to identify the brain regions involved in complex MI in a small sample of elite female ice hockey players experienced in visualization. Using an experimental block design, the athletes visualized a specific PETTLEP (physical, environment, task, timing, learning, emotion, perspective)-guided scripted ice hockey play while being monitored with MEG. A frequency-domain beamformer was then calculated to contrast the MEG data from the imagery condition with two different control (resting state or mental counting) conditions. Significance was assessed using a cluster-based permutation test. The beamforming results identified a principal hub of neural activity during the imagery condition in a posterior left hemisphere cortical region surrounding the intraparietal sulcus. The same brain region was reliably activated in all eight participants and may hypothetically demarcate the neural substrate of this type of conscious thought.

运动想象（Motor Imagery, MI），又称“可视化训练”，是精英运动员为提升竞技表现所采用的训练手段，其为探究内隐思维——即想象活动——如何影响后续行为提供了经典研究模型。本项探索性脑磁图（Magnetoencephalography, MEG）研究以具备丰富可视化训练经验的精英女子冰球运动员小样本为研究对象，旨在明确复杂运动想象过程中所涉及的脑区。本研究采用实验区组设计，让运动员在脑磁图监测下，依据PETTLEP（身体、环境、任务、时序、学习、情绪、视角）框架预设的冰球比赛场景脚本进行可视化想象。随后通过频域波束形成器，对运动想象任务态与两种对照条件（静息态或心算任务态）的脑磁图数据开展对比分析。研究采用基于簇的置换检验对统计显著性进行评估。波束形成分析结果显示，运动想象任务态下的核心神经活动枢纽，位于左侧半球后部围绕顶内沟的皮层区域。该脑区在全部8名受试者中均得到了稳定激活，据此可推测其可能为这类有意识思维活动的神经基础。