Boosting Athletic Performance and The Battle Inside You

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TMS in Sports Science

Maheshram Madasamy - Business Development Manager at Magstim & Masters in Neuroscience

In light of the Super Bowl ?? approaching, I wanted to discuss how neuromodulation is often used in sports science.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation, (TMS) has brought important innovations to the study of cortical excitability as it is a non-invasive method and can be used in versatile protocols. This can include rTMS and paired-pulse protocols of varying frequencies and duration.

One such area of study with neuromodulation is in sports sciences and evaluating athletic performance. TMS can be used as a tool to investigate changes in cortex excitability in athletes and acute and chronic responses of the motor cortex in sports science.

Factors in sports that TMS can be used to investigate ?? :

1. Post-exercise facilitation

2. Central fatigue

3. Sensorimotor integration

4. Motor coordination

5. Neuronal plasticity

Examples:

1. Using TMS, it was possible to demonstrate that when a subject performs a voluntary non-maximal muscle contraction, the corticospinal path to the muscle is facilitated.

2. In lifting, double-pulse TMS allows for the study of motor cortex fatigue. TMS gives access to the motor cortex independently of spinal or peripheral mechanisms.

Results indicated that reduced intra-cortical facilitation reflected decreased excitability of intraneuronal circuits within the motor cortex.

3. In karate, TMS was used to investigate the involvement of the primary motor cortex (M1) in the coordination performance of karate athletes.

This was done using a single-pulse TMS protocol, which was applied using a figure-eight coil stimulator. The resting motor threshold (rMT) was determined and surface electromyography was recorded from the first dorsal interosseous muscle.

Coil Placement: Curious how the coil placement looks? See the provided image above on coil placement!

The Invisible Battle Inside Your Body

Nicolas Hubacz, M.S. - Business Development Manager at Magstim and Founder of NH Sponsorships

This high-resolution fluorescence microscopy image captures a pivotal moment in mitosis, likely in anaphase, where replicated chromosomes (yellow) are being separated into two daughter cells. This process is fundamental to maintaining genomic integrity in eukaryotic organisms.

Key Features in the Image

?? Chromosomes (Yellow): The condensed genetic material is being actively pulled apart by the mitotic spindle. Proper chromosomal segregation is crucial to prevent aneuploidy, a hallmark of many cancers.

?? Actin Cytoskeleton (Red): The dense actin network provides structural support and plays a role in cytokinesis, the final physical separation of the daughter cells. Actin dynamics are particularly important in shaping the cleavage furrow.

?? Microtubules (Blue): These filaments form the mitotic spindle, which attaches to kinetochores and exerts forces to separate sister chromatids. The spindle assembly checkpoint ensures that chromosomes are correctly attached before anaphase proceeds.

Why This Matters ??

Mitosis is not just a routine process; it is a highly regulated sequence of events controlled by cyclins, kinases, and checkpoint proteins. Any errors—such as lagging chromosomes, spindle misattachments, or centrosome amplification—can lead to genomic instability, a key driver of tumorigenesis.

Understanding mitotic regulation is crucial for developing targeted cancer therapies. Many chemotherapeutic agents, such as taxanes (paclitaxel) and vinca alkaloids (vinblastine), work by disrupting microtubule dynamics to induce mitotic arrest, ultimately triggering apoptosis in rapidly dividing cancer cells.

Credit to Dylan Burnette on X!

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