Expertise level dependent functionally plastic changes during motor imagery in basketball players.

•Congruence in time for performing motor imagery and execution improves with the increase in motor expertise.•The vividness of motor imagery is clearer in a with-ball compared to a without-ball condition.•Cortical activation pattern during motor imagery is different in groups with different levels of motor expertise.•Elite players showed higher brain activity in without-ball condition whereas intermediate players showed reverse pattern.•Sports training history drives differences in functional neuroplasticity.