Reduced left dorsolateral prefrontal activation during spatial imagery in elite snowboard halfpipe athletes

Objective: This study investigates whether elite snowboard halfpipe athletes exhibit different prefrontal activation patterns during spatial imagery processing, with particular attention to whether these patterns are compatible with neural efficiency and to the regulatory role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the interaction between spatial perception and inhibitory control. Methods: Using a single-factor between-subjects design, 10 National Team snowboard halfpipe athletes in the expert group and 15 collegiate novice participants in the novice group were recruited. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was employed to monitor oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) concentration changes in the prefrontal cortex while participants performed mental rotation-based spatial perception and spatial response inhibition tasks. Results: Behavioral data indicated no significant differences in reaction time or accuracy between groups, with task performance exhibiting a ceiling effect. However, neuroimaging results revealed that the expert group exhibited significantly lower HbO activation levels in the left DLPFC compared to the novice group while maintaining equivalent behavioral performance. Conclusion: Snowboard halfpipe athletes exhibited a different neural processing pattern during spatial imagery tasks, characterized by lower left-DLPFC HbO responses under comparable behavioral performance. This pattern is compatible with, but does not by itself prove, greater neural efficiency, and alternative explanations such as differences in task engagement, strategy use, and baseline cognitive ability should also be considered.