TY  - JOUR
A1  - Huang, Zirui
A1  - Iv, Henry (Hap) Davis
A1  - Yue, Qiang
A1  - Wiebking, Christine
A1  - Duncan, Niall W.
A1  - Zhang, Jianfeng
A1  - Wagner, Nils-Frederic
A1  - Wolff, Annemarie
A1  - Northoff, Georg
T1  - Increase in glutamate/glutamine concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex during mental imagery: A combined functional mrs and fMRI study
JF  - Human brain mapping : a journal devoted to functional neuroanatomy and neuroimaging
N2  - Recent functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) studies have shown changes in glutamate/glutamine (Glx) concentrations between resting-state and active-task conditions. However, the types of task used have been limited to sensory paradigms, and the regions from which Glx concentrations have been measured limited to sensory ones. This leaves open the question as to whether the same effect can be seen in higher-order brain regions during cognitive tasks. Cortical midline structures, especially the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), have been suggested to be involved in various such cognitive tasks. We, therefore set out to use fMRS to investigate the dynamics of Glx concentrations in the MPFC between resting-state and mental imagery task conditions. The auditory cortex was used as a control region. In addition, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to explore task-related neural activity changes. The mental imagery task consisted of imagining swimming and was applied to a large sample of healthy participants (n=46). The participants were all competitive swimmers, ensuring proficiency in mental-swimming. Glx concentrations in the MPFC increased during the imagery task, as compared to resting-state periods preceding and following the task. These increases mirror BOLD activity changes in the same region during the task. No changes in either Glx concentrations or BOLD activity were seen in the auditory cortex. These findings contribute to our understanding of the biochemical basis of generating or manipulating mental representations and the MPFC's role in this. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3204-3212, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
KW  - medial prefrontal cortex
KW  - glutamate
KW  - glutamine
KW  - magnetic resonance spectroscopy
KW  - functional magnetic resonance imaging
KW  - mental imagery
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22841
SN  - 1065-9471
SN  - 1097-0193
VL  - 36
IS  - 8
SP  - 3204
EP  - 3212
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sariati, Dorsaf
A1  - Zouhal, Hassane
A1  - Hammami, Raouf
A1  - Clark, Cain Craig Truman
A1  - Nebigh, Ammar
A1  - Chtara, Moktar
A1  - Hackney, Anthony C.
A1  - Souissi, Nizar
A1  - Granacher, Urs
A1  - Ben Ounis, Omar
T1  - Association Between Mental Imagery and Change of Direction Performance in Young Elite Soccer Players of Different Maturity Status
JF  - Frontiers in Psychology
N2  - Previous studies have not considered the potential influence of maturity status on the relationship between mental imagery and change of direction (CoD) speed in youth soccer. Accordingly, this cross-sectional study examined the association between mental imagery and CoD performance in young elite soccer players of different maturity status. Forty young male soccer players, aged 10-17 years, were assigned into two groups according to their predicted age at peak height velocity (PHV) (Pre-PHV; n = 20 and Post-PHV; n = 20). Participants were evaluated on soccer-specific tests of CoD with (CoDBall-15m) and without (CoD-15m) the ball. Participants completed the movement imagery questionnaire (MIQ) with the three- dimensional structure, internal visual imagery (IVI), external visual imagery (EVI), as well as kinesthetic imagery (KI). The Post-PHV players achieved significantly better results than Pre-PHV in EVI (ES = 1.58, large; p < 0.001), CoD-15m (ES = 2.09, very large; p < 0.001) and CoDBall-15m (ES = 1.60, large; p < 0.001). Correlations were significantly different between maturity groups, where, for the pre-PHV group, a negative very large correlation was observed between CoDBall-15m and KI (r = –0.73, p = 0.001). For the post-PHV group, large negative correlations were observed between CoD-15m and IVI (r = –0.55, p = 0.011), EVI (r = –062, p = 0.003), and KI (r = –0.52, p = 0.020). A large negative correlation of CoDBall-15m with EVI (r = –0.55, p = 0.012) and very large correlation with KI (r = –0.79, p = 0.001) were also observed. This study provides evidence of the theoretical and practical use for the CoD tasks stimulus with imagery. We recommend that sport psychology specialists, coaches, and athletes integrated imagery for CoD tasks in pre-pubertal soccer players to further improve CoD related performance.
KW  - mental imagery
KW  - football
KW  - maturation
KW  - speed
KW  - adolescents
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.665508
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 12
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne, Schweiz
ER  -