AUTHOR=Caminita Mia , Garcia Gina L. , Kwon Hyun Joon , Miller Ross H. , Shim Jae Kun 

TITLE=Sensory-to-Motor Overflow: Cooling Foot Soles Impedes Squat Jump Performance

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.549880

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2020.549880

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=Evidence from recent studies on animals and humans suggest that neural overflow from the primary sensory cortex (S1) to the primary motor cortex (M1) may play a critical role in motor control.  However, it is unclear if whole-body maximal motor tasks are also governed by this mechanism.  Maximum vertical squat jumps were performed by fifteen young adults before cooling, then immediately following a 15-minute cooling period using an ice-water bath for the foot soles, and finally immediately following a 15-minute period of natural recovery from cooling. Jump heights were, on average, 3.1cm lower immediately following cooling compared to before cooling (p=3.39 x 10-8) and 1.9cm lower following natural recovery from cooling (p=0.00124). Average vertical ground reaction force was also lower by 78.2N in the condition immediately following cooling compared to before cooling (p=8.1 x 10-5) and 56.7N lower following natural recovery from cooling (p=0.0043).  The current study supports the S1-to-M1 overflow mechanism in a whole-body dynamic jump.