Fig. 1.
Study design. A: procedures for test day 1 (TD1) and test day 2 (TD2). Within each session, participants had to perform five 20-s trials of a static balance task (SBT) separated by 20-s rest periods (SBTpre). Subsequently, multimodal balance task (MBT) training was performed by endurance athletes (EA) and nonathletes (NA) for a total duration of 20 min (see text for details). Immediately after termination of MBT, SBT performance was reassessed (SBTpost). Control group (CG) participants only performed SBT twice, before and after a 20-min rest period (without MBT training). B: simplified illustration of SBT. The tracking ball (green) could be moved by subtle shifts in body sways. The target zone consisted of 5 circles where 1 indicated the best possible score and 5 the lowest. C: illustration of the fNIRS configuration used during SBT. Detectors are shown as blue dots and transmitters as red dots.