Brain Sciences (Oct 2021)

Balance Expertise Is Associated with Superior Spatial Perspective-Taking Skills

  • Kirsten Hötting,
  • Ann-Kathrin Rogge,
  • Laura A. Kuhne,
  • Brigitte Röder

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111401
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 11
p. 1401

Abstract

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Balance training interventions over several months have been shown to improve spatial cognitive functions and to induce structural plasticity in brain regions associated with visual-vestibular self-motion processing. In the present cross-sectional study, we tested whether long-term balance practice is associated with better spatial cognition. To this end, spatial perspective-taking abilities were compared between balance experts (n = 40) practicing sports such as gymnastics, acrobatics or slacklining for at least four hours a week for the last two years, endurance athletes (n = 38) and sedentary healthy individuals (n = 58). The balance group showed better performance in a dynamic balance task compared to both the endurance group and the sedentary group. Furthermore, the balance group outperformed the sedentary group in a spatial perspective-taking task. A regression analysis across all participants revealed a positive association between individual balance performance and spatial perspective-taking abilities. Groups did not differ in executive functions, and individual balance performance did not correlate with executive functions, suggesting a specific association between balance skills and spatial cognition. The results are in line with theories of embodied cognition, assuming that sensorimotor experience shapes cognitive functions.

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