Investigation of relation between basal ganglion volumes and reaction times in elite athletes

Aim: Basal ganglia are considered as important structures for the motor motional control in human. In this study we aimed to reveal possible auido and visual reaction times relation with the basal ganglia via the application of volumetric stereological analysis related with basal ganglia during a rapid reaction time group of elite sportsman comparing with sedanters. Hypothesis: In this study, stereological volumetric analyzes of the basal ganglia for pathological conditions involving major circulation disorders in motor coordination were considered to be performed in elite athletes. Method: In our study, two groups were examined, the first group was consisted of right handed elite 20 sportsman (11 men, 9 women) aged between 19-25 years while the second group included right handed sedate 20 person (10 men, 10 women) aged between 18-28 years. Visual and auditory reaction times, stereological corpus striatum volumetry were evaluated for both groups. Results: Applying these methods on the two groups of individuals examined showed that the mean of the visual reaction time found was longer than auditory reaction time in the sportive group. Further, the left nucleus caudatus volume was found higher than the right side in both groups examined in this study. Conclussion: We can conclude from our study results that these results are in concordance with the standard morphometric clinical data available in scientific literature.