Publication:

觸知覺之大小腦神經互動機制-以射箭選手的感覺運動適應為例

感覺運動整合是人類與環境互動最主要的方式之ㄧ，協調動作的產生在於感覺與運動訊息是否得以完善地整合。一直以來，小腦皆被認為與動作協調有著直接的因果關係。在我們之前的研究中，以一般的健康受試者為研究對象，測量受試者在執行視聽時間區辨作業時的腦部血流變化，用以探討大小腦在處理感覺訊息時的神經互動機制。我們的研究結果支持了訊息可經由小腦分析整理之後傳送至大腦，以節省大腦訊息處理負擔的論點。本研究的目的在於將先前的研究結果延伸至具有高度動作協調能力的運動員，研究徵召47名參與者，其中16名為射箭運動員，15名田徑運動員，另外16名為一般的非運動員健康參與者。受試者分別執行主動的觸覺區辨作業與動作相同但不需觸覺區辨的作業，同時並接受功能性磁振造影掃描以記錄其腦部血流的變化。研究的主要結果發現，無論是非運動員或是田徑運動員參與者，其在小腦與體感覺聯合皮質的活化程度皆顯著較射箭運動員來得高。與小腦的感覺獲得理論相符合，小腦參與了感覺訊息區辨的歷程。本研究結果更進一步發現，相較於沒有豐富感覺區辨經驗的參與者(田徑選手與非運動員)，具有豐富感覺區辨經驗的參與者(射箭運動員)可使用較節省的大小腦神經訊息處理模式來完成作業，這樣的能量經濟模式推論是透過運動訓練所達成感覺運動適應過程。

Sensorimotor integration is the foundation of movement coordination. The cerebellum has been long regarded as an essential brain organ for movement coordination. In our previous study of visual duration perception, findings from healthy participants suggest that cortical computation could be saved by receiving integrated sensory information from the cerebellum. The present study aims to extend our previous findings by examining the cerebrocerebellum interaction for tactile perception in archers, who are mastery of movement coordination. 47 participants, 16 archers, 15 middle and long distance runners and 16 novices, were recruited in the current study. Participants were instructed to passively sense or actively compare the tactile stimulation on their finger. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate the difference of sensorimotor adaptation among these three groups. It was found that the somatosensory associative cortex (BA7) and the cerebellum yielded significantly higher activations in both runners and novices than in archers. In accord with the predictions of sensory acquisition hypothesis of the cerebellum, the cerebellum plays an important role in tactile discrimination. In addition, through the process of the sports training, the expert brain adapts itself to a more economic mode for saving the neural processing loading in the related sensory areas, i.e. somatosensory associative cortex and the cerebellum.