Elite athletes who perform extreme physical efforts within sport have an area of the brain that works 82% faster than the average , according to the latest study carried out by a team of scientists from University College London (United Kingdom) and collected by Wednesday magazine.
For the experiment, the participants had to perform a series of tasks that required the use of the parietal cortex of the brain, a key area that determines the speed of reaction . The results left no room for doubt: the response of the elite athletes was shown to be an exceptional advantage over the others.
“ What often establishes how good some people are is mostly being under pressure. We wanted to test these guys to see if we could investigate what sets them apart. In some of the fields of the participants, a fraction of a second in decision making can lead to a big final difference ”, explains Vicente Walsh, leader of the study.
The five athletes who participated in the study were: John McGuinness (motorcycle racer), Leo Houlding (climber), Sam Bird (motorsport racer), Alexander Polli (jumper, parachutist) and Amy Williams (skeleton) . All of them were subjected to physical and mental pressure before performing a timed visual task that required participants to identify a series of shapes and patterns. After physical exercises, which led to exhaustion, elite athletes were 82% faster on intelligence tests.
The more fatigued they were, the elite athletes improved an average of 10% more, compared to the control group, which worsened up to 60% more . Regarding the distractions during the tasks, the elite athletes were 3 times more efficient than the other subjects.
