Neural Correlates of Expert Behavior During a Domain-Specific Attentional Cueing Task in Badminton Players.

The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates associated with sports expertise during a domain-specific task in badminton players. We compared event-related potentials activity from collegiate male badminton players and a set of matched athletic controls when they performed a badminton-specific attentional cueing task in which the uncertainty and validity were manipulated. The data showed that, regardless of cue type, the badminton players had faster responses along with greater P3 amplitudes than the athletic controls on the task. Specifically, the contingent negative variation amplitude was smaller for the players than for the controls in the condition involving higher uncertainty. Such an effect, however, was absent in the condition with lower uncertainty. We conclude that expertise in sports is associated with proficient modulation of brain activity during cognitive and motor preparation, as well as response execution, when performing a task related to an individual's specific sport domain.

Acute effects of plyometric jumping and intermittent running on serum bone markers in young males.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different modes of single-bout exercise would cause different responses in short-term bone metabolism. 24 untrained male college students (19.1 ± 0.1 years old) were recruited and randomly assigned to three groups: (1) a single-bout plyometric exercise group (the PL group, n = 8), (2) a 200-meter × 10 intermittent running group (the IR group, n = 8) and (3) a sedentary control group, which followed the same time schedule of experimentation without performing any exercise (the CON group, n = 8). Serial blood samples were collected before (baseline) and 5 min, 15 min, 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after exercise trials. Within 15 min of exercise, the PL and IR groups showed significantly higher serum phosphorus than did the control group (P < 0.05). Osteocalcin levels were significantly higher in the PL group at 5 min and 1 h after exercise (P < 0.05), while serum tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) showed no differences among groups. Exercises with different mechanical impact levels responded differently in serum bone formation markers as shown by osteocalcin. Because the increase in osteocalcin in the PL group was revealed shortly after the exercise bout, the changes might due to an exercise-induced mechanical impact rather than bone cellular activities.