Tactile acuity in experienced Tai Chi practitioners: evidence for use dependent plasticity as an effect of sensory-attentional training
- 30 May 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Experimental Brain Research
- Vol. 188 (2), 317-322
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1409-6
Abstract
The scientific discovery of novel training paradigms has yielded better understanding of basic mechanisms underlying cortical plasticity, learning and development. This study is a first step in evaluating Tai Chi (TC), the Chinese slow-motion meditative exercise, as a training paradigm that, while not engaging in direct tactile stimulus training, elicits enhanced tactile acuity in long-term practitioners. The rationale for this study comes from the fact that, unlike previously studied direct-touch tactile training paradigms, TC practitioners focus specific mental attention on the body’s extremities including the fingertips and hands as they perform their slow routine. To determine whether TC is associated with enhanced tactile acuity, experienced adult TC practitioners were recruited and compared to age–gender matched controls. A blinded assessor used a validated method (Van Boven et al. in Neurology 54(12): 2230–2236, 2000) to compare TC practitioners’ and controls’ ability to discriminate between two different orientations (parallel and horizontal) across different grating widths at the fingertip. Study results showed that TC practitioners’ tactile spatial acuity was superior to that of the matched controls (P < 0.04). There was a trend showing TC may have an enhanced effect on older practitioners (P < 0.066), suggesting that TC may slow age related decline in this measure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate a long-term attentional practice’s effects on a perceptual measure. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine whether TC initiates or is merely correlated with perceptual changes and whether it elicits long-term plasticity in primary sensory cortical maps. Further studies should also assess whether related somatosensory attentional practices (such as Yoga, mindfulness meditation and Qigong) achieve similar effects.This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- A common framework for perceptual learningCurrent Opinion in Neurobiology, 2007
- Perceptual learning without signalVision Research, 2007
- Cortical Dynamics As A Therapeutic Mechanism for Touch HealingThe Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2007
- Improvement and Decline in Tactile Discrimination Behavior after Cortical Plasticity Induced by Passive Tactile CoactivationJournal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Selected As the Best Paper in the 1990s: Reducing Frailty and Falls in Older Persons: An Investigation of Tai Chi and Computerized Balance TrainingJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2003
- Decline of tactile acuity in aging: a study of body site, blood flow, and lifetime habits of smoking and physical activitySomatosensory & Motor Research, 2003
- Tactile spatial acuity in elderly persons: assessment with grating domes and relationship with manual dexteritySomatosensory & Motor Research, 2003
- Tactile spatial resolution in blind Braille readersNeurology, 2000
- Tactile learning is task specific but transfers between fingersPerception & Psychophysics, 1997
- A psychophysical study of the mechanisms of sensory recovery following nerve injury in humansBrain, 1994