The Effect of Juggling as Dual-Task Activity on Human Neuroplasticity: A Systematic Review

Jakub Malik, Rafał Stemplewski and Janusz Maciaszek
Additional contact information
Jakub Malik: Department of Physical Activity and Health Promotion Science, Poznan University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznan, Poland
Rafał Stemplewski: Department of Digital Technologies in Physical Activity, Poznan University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznan, Poland
Janusz Maciaszek: Department of Physical Activity and Health Promotion Science, Poznan University of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznan, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: This systematic review formulated a research question based on the PICO method in accordance with the Guidelines for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), “What is the effect of juggling as dual-task activity on neuroplasticity in the human brain?” In total, 1982 studies were analysed, 11 of which met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. These studies included 400 participants who had no prior juggling experience or were expert jugglers. The research methodology in seven studies was based on a long-term intervention with juggling. Three studies were based on brain imaging during the act of juggling, and one study was based on comparing differences between experienced jugglers and non-jugglers without the intervention. In all of these selected studies, positive structural changes in the human brain were found, including changes mainly in the gray matter (GM) volume in the visual motion complex area (hMT/V5) and the white matter (WM) volume in fractional anisotropy (FA). Based on this evidence, it can be concluded that the bimanual juggling task, as a dual-task activity, may effectively integrate brain areas to improve neuroplasticity. The small number of well-designed studies and the high risk of bias call for further research using a juggling intervention to identify conclusive evidence.

Keywords: bimanual task; human brain; neural plasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7102/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7102/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7102-:d:835356

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().