Increased Cerebellar Gray Matter Volume in Athletes: A Voxel-Wise Coordinate-Based Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis study was to investigate distinct brain structural characteristics in athletes as compared with those in non-athletes by quantifying regional gray matter (GM) volume changes using voxel-based morphometry analysis based on a whole-brain approach. Methods: The systematic literature search was conducted from November 1, 2020 to October 18, 2021 via the two search engines including the PubMed and Web of Science. We included 13 studies that reported GM volume data in 229 athletes as compared 219 non-athletes based on the whole-brain analysis with specific three-dimensional coordinates in a standard stereotactic space. Thus, we performed a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the seed-based d mapping via permutation of subject images methods. Result: The coordinate-based meta-analysis reported that the athletes significantly reveal greater regional GM volume across right cerebellar lobules IV–V and Brodmann area 37 regions than those in the non-athletes with minimal levels of heterogeneity and publication bias between the included studies. The subgroup analyses show that greater GM volume for athletes in closed-skill sports appeared across the right cerebellar hemispheric lobules VIII and the right cingulum than those for non-athletes. Conclusion: These cumulative findings from multiple brain imaging studies suggest potential brain plasticity evidence in the athletes who experienced extensive motor training.

KEYWORDS:

• Athlete
• brain structure
• coordinate-based meta-analysis
• gray matter volume
• magnetic resonance imaging

Acknowledgments

The author thank to Joon Ho Lee and Tae Lee Lee (Incheon National University, Incheon, South Korea) for data collection and quality assessments.

Contributors

NK performed statistical analyses, wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and provided input into all aspects of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

This project did not meet the definition of human subjects research and did not require further review by the institutional review board of the author’s university.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

NK is supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2020S1A5A8041203).