Influencing factors of decision-making and lower limb motor function in speed skaters

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4891089/v1

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Influencing factors of decision-making and lower limb motor function in speed skaters

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4891089/v1

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Purpose Measuring and comparing the resting-state brain functional connectivity of skaters at different levels, by comparing the differences between various indicators of high-level and low-level athletes which provides theoretical reference for beginners to improve their skill level during movement practice.

Methods More than five years of high level speed skaters, low level speed skaters as the subjects, Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) changes in the resting state cerebral cortex, Corresponding the spatial coordinates to the functional network, Divided into the default network (DMN), the ventral attention network (VAN), the somatomotor network (SMN) and the visual network (VN), include four functional brain networks. The knee flexion / extension moment and total work, ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion and valgus / varus torque and total work were tested by the isokinetic muscle strength system.

Results and conclusions (1) Long-term skating training can enhance brain executive function, promote the functional connection within and between different functional networks of the brain, mainly by the sensorimotor network. (2) Long-term skating training promotes the efficiency of the cerebral cortex, which makes the information transmission and collaborative processing of the sensorimotor network more efficient, reflecting the unique benefits of skating training. (3) Speed skating squatting practice with ankle strategy to regulate posture stability, has a positive role in improving the ankle joint plantar flexion torque, the faster the joint angle speed changes, the smaller the torque change, so the appropriate slow speed is conducive to make the torque peak.

Biological sciences/Biochemistry

Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics

Biological sciences/Physiology

Health sciences/Health care

The invention and application of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provide effective help for the study of resting-state brain functional connectivity¹. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy equipment to collect cerebral blood oxygen signal and evaluate the intensity of brain functional activity in the brain area. With the development of brain science and the application of related technologies, the study of brain function began from the study of differentiation function to the study of brain function integration². Brain function integration research has become an important research direction of brain function research, and brain function connection is from the perspective of function integration research important research method, it refers to the neural activity signal between different brain regions dynamic synchronization, show the synergy of different brain area, is an important function of brain function, lay the theoretical foundation for this study.

After long-term sports training, skaters can help to explore the effects of exercise experience on physiology and cognitive processes³. Exercise has some plasticity to the brain, so long-term skating training may cause some changes in brain function, which determines the visual response ability, but whether the functional changes are specific and the influence mechanisms are not fully understood⁴. Therefore, by testing the differences in functional connectivity in related brain regions, the muscle strength and brain functional connectivity mechanisms of skaters at different levels are revealed.

1.1 Study Purpose

(1) The resting-state cerebral blood oxygen data of the data from the perspective of brain imaging, discussing long-term participation in speed skating will have an impact on the brain function connection, if influential, compared with the influence of skating analysis, explore the brain area functional connection change is the unique benefits of speed skating, and study the relationship between the brain function connection, reveal the speed skating movement of brain function connection mechanism.

(2) The knee and ankle muscle strength was evaluated by the isokinetic muscle strength testing system, test indicators in different levels, gender athletes, through quantitative evaluation of different angular speed of the knee joint, ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion torque and work, comparing different levels of indicators, reveal high levels and low level index difference, help beginners targeted practice speed skating.

1.2 Study significance

By comparing the differences between skaters and practitioners in brain functional connectivity, the study confirmed that skating has a specific effect on promoting brain function, which can verify and explore the value of skating and promote the promotion and publicity of skating. At the same time, by exploring the specific influence of skating on brain functional connection and brain mechanism, it provides theoretical reference for the scientific selection, sports evaluation and monitoring of skaters, and also has great potential application for functional improvement, and provides basis for the formulation of sports prescription for skating injuries.

In order to verify the influence of skating on brain function and muscle strength, exploring the promoting effect of skating on response and judgment ability from the perspective of brain mechanism, and explore the functional connection mechanism of brain area, so as to provide a more powerful basis for the study of the influence of skating on visual response.

2.1 Experimental subject

Healthy high-level and low-level athletes were recruited to participate in the experiment, and high-level athletes with more than 5 years of practice and professional practical experience were taken as the professional group. The subjects were divided into high-level male and low-level male, high-level female and low-level female players, with 20 participants in each group. There are two reasons for selecting subjects: first, voluntary participation, subjects are willing to participate in the study, and can directly obtain real data feedback from the tester; second, feasibility of the participants, which can meet the requirements of the test in grouping. Inclusion criteria: (1) previous and current no vestibular perception, visual dysfunction, neurological diseases affecting postural control; (2) no motor dysfunction, no foot deformity, no skeletal muscle dysfunction, no muscle strain, no muscle weakness, no lower limb weakness, no trunk surgery history, free movement; (3) no head trauma, no physical and cognitive dysfunction, no psychological problems, good movement comprehension, no obvious understanding or communication disorders. Exclusion criteria: (1) excluding subjects with lower limb complications such as skeletal muscle disease and fracture, no history of joint replacement, no chronic arthritis, bone organic disease, subjects with a history of bone-joint or nerve injury were excluded; (2) excluding subjects with dislocation for at least six months and a history of surgery; (3) excluding subjects with diseases of major organs and unable to bear exercise load.

Contact with the subject before the experiment, the subjects did not do high-intensity exercise within 24 hours before the test, could not do high strength physical activities such as running, fitness or mountain climbing, and ensured adequate sleep for at least 8 hours in the night before the test to avoid large mood fluctuations. Before the start of the experiment, all the experiments were conducted in the same environment. Through the informed consent form and the experiment personnel explained the research purpose, the experiment content, experimental process, test requirements and steps, precautions, possible risks and discomfort, and signed the consent form. The information of the subjects is shown in Table 1. All participants provided written informed consent and were paid for their participation. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the School of Physical Education Science, Harbin Normal University. The research was conducted in compliance with Declaration of Helsinki.

Table 1

Basic information of subjects
	n	age(y)	height(cm)	weight(kg)	BMI
High-level male team member	20	21.71 ± 1.24	174.51 ± 4.43	68.52 ± 5.64	22.08 ± 1.45
Low-level male team member	20	21.55 ± 1.08	175.82 ± 4.07	68.45 ± 7.31	22.71 ± 1.58
High-level female team member	20	21.32 ± 1.16	165.06 ± 5.11	55.38 ± 5.09	22.34 ± 1.36
Low-level female team member	20	21.09 ± 1.48	165.23 ± 5.37	55.41 ± 5.83	21.65 ± 1.24

2.2 Experimental protocol

2.2.1 Collection and processing of cerebral blood oxygen signals

The signal acquisition time was 12 min, and the signal sampling frequency was set at 17 Hz. The surroundings remained quiet during the test period, and no moving targets and sound stimuli interfered with the subjects. The spatial coordinates correspond to the functional network, and they were divided into four brain functional networks: Default Mode Network (DMN), Ventral Attention Network (VAN), Somatomotor Network (SMN) and Visual Network (VN). Figure 1 was the data preprocessing and data analysis.

Cortical regions that may be activated during performing exercise. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) was located in the brain frontal, the cortical area mainly involved in cognitive related activities, at the same time both memory and attention resource allocation, advanced cognitive neural information processing, especially in the choice of complex stimuli, discrimination tasks, was to explore the brain activity changes appropriate area. The motor cortex (MC) was responsible for the motor sensory and motor control in the posterior central gyrus in front of the central sulcus. When visual stimuli appear, this area may participate in controlling motor responses and control the body to make corresponding behaviors. The occipital cortex (OC) was located behind the parietto-occipital sulcus and preoccipital notch. It was responsible for visual information processing and also participates in memory and motion perception. When the visual response is performed, the stimulus signal first reaches the area. Prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, and occipital cortex are highly active regions when performing visual tasks and motor behaviors.

Figure 2 was the subject measured map and data information processing. During the process of measuring brain areas, assuming that the prefrontal cortex, motor cortex and occipital cortex also participate in the skating movement, when designing the light source probe of NIR spectrum equipment, ensure that each channel distribution can fully cover the prefrontal cortex, motor cortex and occipital cortex area.

2.2.2 Data acquisition and processing of isokinetic muscle strength test

Due to the different speed and inconsistent range of motion in different movements of the joint, the peak torque of the knee and ankle joint is evaluated by isokinetic test to assess the absolute strength of the muscle and reflect the maximum contraction ability of the muscle. In addition, the total work index is also tested. When using the isokinetic muscle strength tester, calibrate the test system in advance, turn on the system half an hour before the experiment, make it on standby, measure the height and weight information of the subject, and input it into the isokinetic dynamometer. Before assessing ankle and knee muscle strength, the subject's foot was placed on the pedal of the isodynamometer, adjusting the position according to the foot size, and the dynamometer was aimed at the ankle center. Adjust the isokinetic tester to the ankle motion center axis at the starting point, adjust the joint range of motion to combat limb gravity.

The subject’s height, weight, birth date and other information were input into the isokinetic dynamometer. The knee flexion / extension, ankle valgus / inversion, ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion, and the angular speed was adjusted to 60°/s, 180°/s, 240°/s, the subject was pressed on the pedal as hard as possible, and try to perform centripetal and centrifugal contraction. 3 times of taking the average, output torque, work and other indicators.

2.2.3 Statistical treatment

Comparing the parameters of different gender groups (high levels / low levels, male / female), NirSpark software was used for data preprocessing and SPSS software for pre-processed NIR data to compare the parameters of skaters between different groups. To test the correlation coefficients of different functional networks between high-level and low-level brain by Pearson’s correlation coefficient, all data were selected (M ± SD) to compare the joint peak torque and total work of different groups.

3.1 Results of the resting-state brain functional activity data

3.1.1 Comparison of functional connections within the network

According to the results in Fig. 3, there was a significant difference in VN-VN between the high-level and low-level male team member (P < 0.01), DMN-DMN and SMN-SMN showed significant differences (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in VN-VN between high-level male players and high-level female team member (P < 0.05).

3.1.2 Comparison of functional connections between networks

As shown in Fig. 4, there were extremely significant differences in DMN-VN, SMN-VN between the high-level and low-level male team member (P < 0.01), and significant differences in DMN-VAN (P < 0.05). There were significant differences between SMN and SMN-VN for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.05).

3.2 Results of the joint torque

3.2.1 Results of the plantarflexion / dorsiflexion torque peak of the ankle joint

According to Fig. 5, there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s plantar flexion torque, 60°/s dorsiflexion torque, 240°/s plantar flexion torque and 240°/s dorsiflexion torque for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01); there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s plantar flexion torque, 60°/s dorsiflexion torque, 240°/s plantar flexion torque and 240°/s dorsiflexion torque for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01). There was a extremely significant difference in 240°/s plantar flexion torque between the high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.01). There were extremely significant difference between the 240°/s plantar flexion torque and 240°/s dorsiflexion torque of low-level male team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01).

3.2.2 Results of the peak valgus / varus torque of the ankle joint

According to Fig. 5, there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s varus torque and 240°/s valgus torque for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01); there were significant difference in 180°/s valgus torque and 240°/s varus torque (P < 0.05). There was a significant differences in 60°/s valgus torque for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01). There were extremely significant differences in 60°/s valgus torque and 240°/s valgus torque between the high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.01). There were extremely significant difference in 60°/s valgus torque and 60°/s varus torque between the low-level male team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01); there was a significant difference in 240°/s varus torque for high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.05).

3.2.3 Results of the knee flexion / extension torque peak

According to Fig. 5, there was a extremely significant differences in 60°/s flexion torque for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01). There were extremely significant difference in the 180°/s flexion torque, 240°/s flexion torque, 240°/s extension torque between the high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.01). There were extremely significant difference between the 180°/s flexion torque, 240°/s flexion torque, 240°/s extension torque of low-level male team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01); there was a significant differences in 60°/s extension torque (P < 0.05).

3.3 Results of the joint torque

3.3.1 Results of the plantarflexion / dorsiflexion total work peak of the ankle joint

According to Fig. 6, there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s plantar flexion total work, 60°/s dorsiflexion total work, 180°/s dorsiflexion total work and 240°/s plantar flexion total work for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01), there was a significant difference in the 180°/s plantar flexion total work (P < 0.05). There was a significant differences in 60°/s dorsiflexion total work for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.05). There was a extremely significant difference in the 180°/s plantar flexion total work between the high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.01).

3.3.2 Results of the peak valgus / varus total work peak of the ankle joint

According to Fig. 6, there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s valgus total work and 240°/s varus total work for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01), there was a significant difference in the 180°/s varus total work (P < 0.05). There was an extremely significant differences in 180°/s valgus total work for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01), there was a significant difference in the 240°/s varus total work (P < 0.05). There were extremely significant difference in the 60°/s varus total work and 180°/s valgus total work between the low-level male team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01).

3.3.3 Results of the knee flexion / extension total work peak of the ankle joint

According to Fig. 6, there were extremely significant differences in 60°/s flexion total work and 240°/s extension total work for high-level male team member and low-level male team member (P < 0.01), there was a extremely significant differences in 240°/s extension total work for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01), there was a significant differences in 180°/s extension total work for high-level female team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.05). There was a extremely significant difference in the 240°/s flexion total work between the high-level male team member and high-level female team member (P < 0.01), there was a extremely significant difference in the 240°/s flexion total work between the low-level male team member and low-level female team member (P < 0.01); there was a significant differences in 180°/s extension torque (P < 0.05).

4.1 Action characteristics of ice skating

Skating studies have focused on the origin and exercise physiology. On the frozen Dutch canal of the 13th century, skaters ran up to 26 kilometers an hour, longer than the possible 18 kilometers when they run on land. As early as 4,000 years ago, humans began ice movement and made the first skates from animal bones. Walking and running exercise patterns involve friction between the shoes and the ground. Skskates used the low friction characteristics of ice. In 1980, Schenau et al.⁵ studied the effect of air friction on speed skating performance, results showed that at the speed of 9.2 m/s, friction accounted for 70% of the energy loss and created a biomechanical model. de Groot et al.⁶ found long isodistant contraction and rapid and powerful push in the gliding stage. Researchers began studying skating kinematics in Amsterdam⁷, taking pictures of them skating in three different skates with different techniques, and then skates in Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, with an average speed of 1.2 m/s.

If a runner is compared with a skater, a runner takes about six steps per skating step. When people run, the muscle shortening speed is coupled with the running speed. The faster people run, the faster the muscle shortening. The coupling of muscle shortening speed and movement speed is the influencing factor of the fastest running. When the muscle is shortened, the maximum energy can be generated, the skating weight is attached to the athlete's skates, the active muscle muscles are loaded in the skating step, the skating skates reduce the skating speed, skating is composed of acceleration and gliding movement, the acceleration stage of hip abduction freedom and plantar pressure are large, and the freedom of knee abduction is small⁸. When people skate faster at a longer pace, avoiding the need to shorten their muscles quickly, each step produces greater strength. With high-speed skating, muscle fiber slowly shorten. In terms of push mechanism, when wearing skates, the ankle stretches and the metatarsal joint does not bend, but the foot rotates around the boot and the blade hinge, and in the final push phase, the metatarsal joint bends to reduce fall incidence⁹.

4.2 Brain functional connectivity characteristics of ice skating

The unique benefits of speed skating are due to a lot of cognitive participation, and long-term training to improve executive functions, faster selection, judgment and response. In the whole brain mode, the high-level team members is significantly stronger than the low-level team members, and the functional connection in the brain function network is stronger than the low-level team members, and the default network is the most significant^10–15. Ice skating promotes the connectivity within the brain functional networks and the functional connectivity between the brain functional networks.

Long-term skating influence on the brain function connection basic default network, sensory motor network as the core, promoted the functional connection between the network, that skating can effectively promote the brain function connection, improve the efficiency of the cerebral cortex, enhance cognitive function, makes brain area between information transfer and collaborative processing more quickly and effectively^16–20. Skating is fast speed, athletes need to have good speed, strength, sensitivity and other physical qualities, as well as excellent neurocognitive ability, especially in the response, attention, judgment and decision-making ability. Skating players should have a relatively strong hand-eye coordination ability. Different regions of the brain are cooperative, and behavior and thinking is not only the work of a single region, different movements will not require the same coordination in brain regions due to their own characteristics^21–25. Long-term skating training can make the brain plastic changes, and this plastic changes are reflected in structural and functional changes, the altered brain areas are the key involved in the movement.

Using fNIRS to record cerebral blood oxygen concentration changes in athletes during task performance, high-level athletes had broader activation in primary motor, premotor, and subparietal cortical regions than non-athletes. The prefrontal area of the human brain is mainly distributed in the forehead, mainly responsible for emotion, cognitive control and behavior management, called cognitive area; the motor cortex area is mainly distributed on the two sides of the central sulcus, responsible for sensory space, motor planning and body control; the occipital cortex contains the visual cortex, in the back of the brain neck, responsible for the coding and conversion of visual perception and visual information^26–27.

This study focused on the prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, and occipital cortex, corresponding to the functional brain network as the default network, sensorimotor network. It was found that skating training enhance the functional connectivity within and between networks, indicating that skating can promote the optimization of neural networks in these brain regions, enhance functional connectivity, and improve the working efficiency of these brain networks^28–29.

Skating sports training to continuously improve the process of the stability and accuracy of the movement, and gradually realize the automation of the movement, the emergence of environment and movement adaptability, in this process, the brain neural network system to identify, integrate and process all kinds of information³⁰. Long-term movement training makes action behavior more automated, the action proficiency cause behavior performance, the corresponding to the brain area or brain network working mode become more independent, all kinds of information coordination and processing efficiency, eventually make less brain area in the form of optimization more efficiently to participate in the action task³¹. High-level athletes have better skills, more coordinated technical movements, possibly due to long-term skating sports training leading to more efficient information transmission and processing of skaters' sensory sports networks³². The sensorimotor network and visual network centered on motor cortex and occipital cortex play a very important role in visual response, but how many brain regions transfer and modulate information requires a deeper study³³.

Due to limited time, no studies examined the relationship between training years and response time and functional brain functional connectivity. The functional NIR spectral device used in the study is not a mobile portable instrument and cannot perform task-state information collection during ice skating shots. Although the mobile portable near-infrared spectrometer has appeared, to explore the movement of brain function connection has become possible, but due to portable mobile device limitations, compared with the research with equipment, to higher accuracy, if the future portable mobile equipment upgrade after can achieve higher accuracy, then the movement influence mechanism of brain function research will have a greater breakthrough.

4.3 Muscular strength characteristics of ice skating

Proprioception is an important influencing factor in postural control. Impaired proprioception changes static posture, and the function of receptor transmission to brain signals affects dynamic balance and motor performance due to sensitivity or blunting. Ankle joint supports whole body weight, including 28 bones, more than 100 ligaments, maintaining human static standing and walking³⁴. When doing speed skating, poor proprioception causes the brain to give wrong commands, making the joints in the wrong way. With the continuous flexion of the knee, the ankle muscle load increases. With the continuous conversion of centripetal and centrifugal movement, the tension and contour contraction forces are constantly changing, and the ankle joint constantly changes the position to adjust the stability³⁵. When the toe is straightened and the ankle is dorsixed, the heel lands continuously, stimulating the ankle plantar flexion and increasing the peak torque. Although squatting also is the process of reducing the center of gravity, but in the role of improving the dorsiflexion strength is not significant, in the rotating step, the knee micro flexion, not more than the tip of the foot, the hip joint parallel to the heel, the sole of the foot landing, ankle dorsiflexion, can improve the ankle dorsiflexion muscle strength³⁶.

During the process of skating action, a variety of ways of compound exercise muscle tendon, calf plantar muscle, improve the strength of plantarflexion muscle³⁷. In this study, the peak of 180°/s plantar flexion torque from different levels was not significantly different, which may be partly related to the subjects' own exercise and body weight. When doing skating, the ankle joint constantly plantar flexion, shifting the center of gravity left and right, rotates the heel, and alternately uses the heel tip to contract the hamstring muscle, stabilize the joint with the anterior cruciate ligament, and force the plantarflexion muscle. When the cerebral cortex receives stimulation, balance is maintained after integrating information, thus changing the peak plantar flexion moment³⁸.

During the process of pedal ice in skating action, while changing the strength of the knee flexion muscle, improve the contact area with the ground, so that the muscles are changed from tension to relaxation, and flexion and extension³⁹. Due to the elasticity and toughness, the ankle flexor strength is concentrated, and the long-term tension and relaxation exercises significantly improve the dorsiflexion strength⁴⁰. When the ankle muscle after pressure and stimulation, the ankle tendon to stretch, as rotation, knee rotation, ankle dorsiflexion and slight internal rotation, long-term practice under the larger angle speed dorsiflexion movement practitioners, constantly adjust the stability in the movement, after the action feedback, adjust the central nerve proprioception changes, coordinate the balance of the parts, improve the peak dorsiflexion torque⁴¹.

People perceive posture, position and direction through proprioception, and adjust the muscles in the trunk and joints for movement. When proprioception is impaired, the human balance function and motor function occur disorders, the hip muscle contraction carries the lower limbs, and the center of gravity is excessively transferred, leading to the movement disorder in speed skating⁴². Muscle strength for muscle against resistance and contraction ability, this study choose ankle muscle strength test, through the speed of low speed, medium speed, high speed on the joint power difference is bigger, when the talus and calcaneus, talus fibula tension increases, will expand ankle, maintain ankle stability⁴³. During the process of ankle movement, the talus and tibia make continuous movement. In order to keep the dynamic movement away from the talus, the range of ankle movement is small, mainly sagittal and coronal movements. Muscle strength and neuromuscular control have an influence on the dynamic and stability degree of the human body⁴⁴.

Speed skating practice can help people relieve pressure, improve the coordination of the limbs, after receiving the visual and tactile signals, the human body controls the muscle contraction and the moderate movement of the body segment through the feedback and regulation of the nervous system, and adjusts own balance. The human body adjusts the muscle work with the nervous system, when the muscles do more work, the deep muscles exert greater force^45–47. The main influencing factor of muscle work is muscle tension, and exercise load is the condition to produces muscle tension. In speed skating, the larger the load and the larger cross-sectional area will increase the muscle tension, because the more muscle fibers, the greater the cross-sectional area, the greater the tension. Work is a single muscle producing absolute force per square centimeter against a moving load. Ankle joint not only ensures limb support, but also ensures that the center of gravity moves in all directions. Excessive pronation and varus of the ankle joint will reduce the midolateral stability of the ankle joint. Plantar flexion exercises can lengthen the anterior muscles of the calf, and the plantar muscles can pull backward to make the muscles tense. When the ability of the nerve control muscles is enhanced, inhibit the antagonistic muscle force. Through dorsiflexion exercise ankle strength, long-term practice can improve people's participation in speed skating sports entertainment^48–50.

Because isokinetic muscle strength test reflects the ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion muscle strength, it is difficult to fully explain the muscle recruitment way, small muscle force characteristics, failed to explain the speed skating movement of small muscle force characteristics, the future will study small muscle force characteristics, for different factors to the speed skating movement of lower limb force mechanism to provide scientific basis^51–52.

(1) Long-term skating training can enhance brain executive function, promote the functional connection within and between different functional networks of the brain, mainly by the sensorimotor network.

(2) Long-term skating training promotes the efficiency of the cerebral cortex, which makes the information transmission and collaborative processing of the sensorimotor network more efficient, reflecting the unique benefits of skating training.

(3) Speed skating is mostly a symmetrical movement supported by both legs, and there are many ankle plantar flexion positions. In single leg support, the ankle load is higher. Long-term practice can improve the plantar flexion / dorsiflexion moment and the total work of plantar flexion.

(4) Speed skating squatting practice with ankle strategy to regulate posture stability, has a positive role in improving the ankle joint plantar flexion torque, the faster the joint angle speed changes, the smaller the torque change, so the appropriate slow speed is conducive to make the torque peak.

(5) It is recommended that speed skating beginners practice standing on one foot and standing in an unstable plane. For beginners who need to improve their plantarflexion and dorsiflexion strength, it is recommended to choose squatting exercises and single-foot support exercises to comprehensively improve the balance ability.

Competing interests

Te authors declare no competing interests.

Author Contribution

Q.Z.J. conceived the experiment and wrote the manuscript; B.P. designed the experiment, collected the data, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript; B.P. collected the data, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript; B.P. and L.Z. performed the experimental design, and collected the data; B.P. performed the experimental design. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Harbin Normal University Philosophy and Social Science Prosperity Plan. We would also like to thank the medical writers, proof-readers and editors from Scientifc Reports.

Data Availability

The datasets used and analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request

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No competing interests reported.

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Influencing factors of decision-making and lower limb motor function in speed skaters

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Abstract

Figures

1 Research background

1.1 Study Purpose

1.2 Study significance

2 Study objects and methods

2.1 Experimental subject

2.2 Experimental protocol

2.2.1 Collection and processing of cerebral blood oxygen signals

2.2.2 Data acquisition and processing of isokinetic muscle strength test

2.2.3 Statistical treatment

3.1 Results of the resting-state brain functional activity data

3.1.1 Comparison of functional connections within the network

3.1.2 Comparison of functional connections between networks

3.2 Results of the joint torque

3.2.1 Results of the plantarflexion / dorsiflexion torque peak of the ankle joint

3.2.2 Results of the peak valgus / varus torque of the ankle joint

3.2.3 Results of the knee flexion / extension torque peak

3.3 Results of the joint torque

3.3.1 Results of the plantarflexion / dorsiflexion total work peak of the ankle joint

3.3.2 Results of the peak valgus / varus total work peak of the ankle joint

3.3.3 Results of the knee flexion / extension total work peak of the ankle joint

4 Discussion

4.1 Action characteristics of ice skating

4.2 Brain functional connectivity characteristics of ice skating

4.3 Muscular strength characteristics of ice skating

5 Conclusion

Declarations

Competing interests

Author Contribution

Acknowledgement

Data Availability

References

Additional Declarations

Supplementary Files

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