Spatial Cognitive Dominance and Brain Processing Characteristics in Orienteering Athletes
In order to investigate whether orienteering exercises can improve spatial cognitive abilities of practition-ers,a study was conducted to compare the reaction time,accuracy,prefrontal brain area(PBA)activation,and blood oxygenation(Oxy-Hb)of orienteering athletes of different levels in a mental rotation task using an expert-novice paradigm and the Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging(fNIRS)technique.blood oxygen(Oxy-Hb)activation.The results revealed that:(1)compared to the novice group,the expert group had a higher rate of accuracy and a shorter response time;(2)compared with the novice group,the expert group had lower intensi-ty of cerebral blood oxygen activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe(R-DLPFC),frontal pole area(FOA),and ventral lateral prefrontal lobe(VLPFC).Conclusion:Orienteering exercise practice changed the spatial cogni-tive processing pattern of the athletes,increased the efficiency of neural resource utilization,and also played an im-portant role in the improvement of cognitive function.