Université de Fribourg

Biomechanical agreement between different imitation jumps and hill jumps in ski jumping

Ketterer, Jakob ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2020, p. sms.13834

Even though the take‐off in ski jumping is decisive, athletes only have a very limited number of training trials on the actual ski jump to practice under real ski jump conditions. Hence, various imitation jumps aiming to mimic the hill jump are performed during daily training. These imitation jumps should therefore mimic the kinematic pattern of hill jumps appropriately. This study aimed to...

Université de Fribourg

A systematic review and meta-analysis on neural adaptations following blood flow restriction training: what we know and what we don’t know

Centner, Christoph ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: Frontiers in Physiology, 2020, vol. 11, p. -

Objective: To summarize the existing evidence on the long-term effects of low-load (LL) blood flow restricted (BFR) exercise on neural markers including both central and peripheral adaptations.Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. The literature search was performed independently by two reviewers in the following electronic databases:...

Université de Fribourg

Freely chosen cadence during cycling attenuates intracortical inhibition and increases intracortical facilitation compared to a similar fixed cadence

K.Sidhu, Simranjit ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: Neuroscience, 2020, vol. 441, p. 93–101

In contrast to other rhythmic tasks such as running, the preferred movement rate in cycling does not minimize energy consumption. It is possible that neurophysiological mechanisms contribute to the choice of cadence, however this phenomenon is not well understood. Eleven participants cycled at a fixed workload of 125 W and different cadences including a freely chosen cadence (FCC, ∼72),...

Université de Fribourg

Training‐, muscle‐ and task‐specific up‐ and downregulation of cortical inhibitory processes

Taube, Wolfgang ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: European Journal of Neuroscience, 2020, vol. 51, no. 6, p. 1428–1440

Motor cortical contribution was shown to be important for balance control and for ballistic types of movements. However, little is known about the role of cortical inhibitory mechanisms and even less about long(er)‐term adaptations of these inhibitory processes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the role of intracortical inhibition before and after four weeks of ...

Université de Fribourg

Preconditioning cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates the neuroplastic effect of subsequent anodal transcranial direct current stimulation applied during cycling in young adults

Pourmajidian, Maryam ; Lauber, Benedikt ; Sidhu, Simranjit K

In: Neuroscience Letters, 2020, vol. 714, p. 134597

The study aimed to examine the effect of a pre-conditioning cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) before subsequent anodal-tDCS (atDCS) was applied during low workload cycling exercise on the corticospinal responses in young healthy individuals. Eleven young subjects participated in two sessions receiving either conditioning ctDCS or sham stimulation, followed by atDCS...

Université de Fribourg

Low-load blood flow restriction training induces similar morphological and mechanical Achilles tendon adaptations compared with high-load resistance training

Centner, Christoph ; Lauber, Benedikt ; Seynnes, Olivier R. ; Jerger, Simon ; Sohnius, Tim ; Gollhofer, Albert ; König, Daniel

In: Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019, vol. 127, no. 6, p. 1660–1667

ow-load blood flow restriction (LL-BFR) training has gained increasing interest in the scientific community by demonstrating that increases in muscle mass and strength are comparable to conventional high-load (HL) resistance training. Although adaptations on the muscular level are well documented, there is little evidence on how LL-BFR training affects human myotendinous properties....

Université de Fribourg

Mental imagery and colour cues can prevent interference between motor tasks

Lauber, Benedikt ; Kurz, Alexander ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: Neuropsychologia, 2019, vol. 124, p. 202–207

Motor interference can be observed when two motor tasks are learnt in subsequent order. The aim of the current study was to test two approaches potentially mitigating interference effects. The first approach used contextual colour cues requiring only little cognitive attention thus being assumed to be primarily implicit while the second, mental practice/rehearsal that demands much more active...

Université de Fribourg

Task-dependent activation of distinct fast and slow(er) motor pathways during motor imagery

Keller, Martin ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: Brain Stimulation, 2018, p. -

Background: Motor imagery and actual movements share overlapping activation of brain areas but little is known about task-specific activation of distinct motor pathways during mental simulation of movements. For real contractions, it was demonstrated that the slow(er) motor pathways are activated differently in ballistic compared to tonic contractions but it is unknown if this also holds true...

Université de Fribourg

Surround inhibition can instantly be modulated by changing the attentional focus

Kuhn, Yves-Alain ; Keller, Martin ; Lauber, Benedikt ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: Scientific Reports, 2018, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 1085

To further investigate the mechanism of surround inhibition (SI) and to determine whether adopting different attentional strategies might have an impact on the modulation of SI, the effects of adopting an external (EF) or internal focus of attention (IF) on SI and motor performance were investigated. While performing an index flexion with either an EF or IF, transcranial magnetic stimulation...

Université de Fribourg

The effects of a single bout of exercise on motor memory interference in the trained and untrained hemisphere

Lauber, Benedikt ; Franke, Steffen ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Gollhofer, Albert

In: Neuroscience, 2017, vol. 347, p. 57–64

Increasing evidence suggests that cardiovascular exercise has positive effects on motor memory consolidation. In this study, we investigated whether a single session of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) mitigates the effects of practicing an interfering motor task. Furthermore, learning and interference effects were assessed in the actively trained and untrained limb as it is known that...