Somatosensory evoked potentials and high-frequency oscillations in athletes

Objective Athletes perform skilled movements during games and daily training. We hypothesized that the cortical representation in athletes differs from that in non-athletes. Methods Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) were recorded from seven healthy football players, seven healthy racquet players and seven healthy non-athletes. Electrical stimuli were delivered to the posterior tibial nerves and the median nerves, bilaterally. Cortical and spinal SEPs and sensory nerve action potentials (SNAPs) were recorded. SEPs were recorded by 0.3–3000 Hz filter. HFOs were separated by 400–800 Hz band-pass filtering. SNAPs were recorded by 20–2000 Hz filter. Results The P37–N45 amplitude in football players and the N20–P25 amplitude in racquet players were significantly larger than those in non-athletes. The number of negative peaks of HFOs from the posterior tibial nerve in football players and the HFO amplitudes from the median nerve in racquet players were significantly larger than those in non-athletes. The earlier an individual started playing football, the larger the P37–N45 amplitude. Neither spinal SEPs nor SNAPs differed significantly among the three groups. Conclusions Daily long-term training brings about plastic excitation in the somatosensory cortex representation of the trained limbs in athletes. Significance Plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex are induced specifically by physical training.