The Brain Why Athletes Are Geniuses

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Neuroscientists have found several ways in which the brains of top-notch athletes seem to function better than those of regular folks.

by Carl Zimmer

The qualities that set a great athlete apart from the rest of us lie not just in the muscles and the lungs but also between the ears. That's because athletes need to make complicated decisions in a flash. One of the most spectacular examples of the athletic brain operating at top speed came in 2001, when the Yankees were in an American League playoff game with the Oakland Athletics. Shortstop Derek Jeter managed to grab an errant throw coming in from right field and then gently tossed the ball to catcher Jorge Posada, who tagged the base runner at home plate. Jeter's quick decision saved the game—and the series—for the Yankees. To make the play, Jeter had to master both conscious decisions, such as whether to intercept the throw, and unconscious ones. These are the kinds of unthinking thoughts he must make in every second of every game: how much weight to put on a foot, how fast to rotate his wrist as he releases a ball, and so on.

In recent years neuroscientists have begun to catalog some fascinating differences between average brains and the brains of great athletes. By understanding what goes on in athletic heads, researchers hope to understand more about the workings of all brains—those of sports legends and couch potatoes alike.

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To understand how athletes arrive at these better solutions, other neuroscientists have run experiments in which athletes and nonathletes perform the same task. This past January Claudio Del Percio of Sapienza University in Rome and his colleagues reported the results of a study in which they measured the brain waves of karate champions and ordinary people, at rest with their eyes closed, and compared them. The athletes, it turned out, emitted stronger alpha waves, which indicate a restful state. This finding suggests that an athlete's brain is like a race car idling in neutral, ready to spring into action.

Del Percio's team has also measured brain waves of athletes and nonathletes in action. In one experiment the researchers observed pistol shooters as they fired 120 times. In another experiment Del Percio had fencers balance on one foot. In both cases the scientists arrived at the same surprising results: The athletes' brains were quieter, which means they devoted less brain activity to these motor tasks than nonathletes did. The reason, Del Percio argues, is that the brains of athletes are more efficient, so they produce the desired result with the help of fewer neurons. Del Percio's research suggests that the more efficient a brain, the better job it does in sports. The scientists also found that when the pistol shooters hit their target, their brains tended to be quieter than when they missed.

Good genes may account for some of the differences in ability, but even the most genetically well-endowed prodigy clearly needs practice—lots of it—to develop the brain of an athlete. As soon as someone starts to practice a new sport, his brain begins to change, and the changes continue for years. Scientists at the University of Regensburg in Germany documented the process by scanning people as they learned how to juggle. After a week, the jugglers were already developing extra gray matter in some brain areas. Their brains continued to change for months, the scientists found.

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[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Neuroscientists have found several ways in which the brains of top-notch athletes seem to function better than those of regular folks.

what happens after they pull an ACL and are no longer playing? Lyle Alzado what a fvckin genius!

More Steve SPAMMAGE!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

what happens after they pull an ACL and are no longer playing? Lyle Alzado what a fvckin genius!

Many athletes can come back from tearing the ACL. Lyle Alzado's been dead for nearly 20 years. When was the last time you even watched a real sport?

[The_Dude 1,142]

Neuroscientists have found several ways in which the brains of top-notch athletes seem to function better than those of regular folks.

what happens after they pull an ACL and are no longer playing? Lyle Alzado what a fvckin genius!

More Steve SPAMMAGE!!

Have a few more beers Marc, you're not nearly entertaining yet, only ignorant and stupid at this point.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Jeter...

*shudder*

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Have a few more beers Marc, you're not nearly entertaining yet, only ignorant and stupid at this point.

All that unicorn spam you been eatin iz makin yo lips all sparkly and shite! Just sayin.

[The_Dude 1,142]

All that unicorn spam you been eatin iz makin yo lips all sparkly and shite! Just sayin.

There we go marc, a few more beers and you'll be back to posting your jibberish and youtube videos.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Jeter...

*shudder*

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

There we go marc, a few more beers and you'll be back to posting your jibberish and youtube videos.

And your responding to jibberish? So many idiots and so little time.