Athletes Have Bigger Brains

A new study reveals that athlete’s brains are actually bigger than non-athletes’ brains in some areas. A study conducted at the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Jing Luo was published last month in PLoS ONE. The study took MRI scans of 12 divers and 12 non-athletic subjects. The results showed the athletic group “had significantly increased cortical thickness.” They found this increased thickness in the left superior temporal sulcus, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus regions.

PLoS ONE describes the MRI scanning process as the following: “High-resolution anatomical images of the whole brain were acquired on a 3-tesla Trio system (Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) with 12-channel head matrix coil using a magnetisation-prepared rapid-acquisition gradient echo sequence.” That technical process boiled down to high resolution pictures that were analyzed for thickness. That measurement was compared to the same scans for non-athletes.

The athletic group comprised of 6 male and 6 female professional divers. As a control group comparison, the study also took MRIs of non-athletic subjects who were of comparable age, gender, and education level to the athletic group. Divers were chosen as the athletic group because the nature of their sport requires performing difficult and continually challenging activities.

This study is one of many that look at the impact of sports on the human body. The results were on a small sample group, but indicate significant information relating to the brain. Studies like this which analyze an extreme group (in this case professional divers) help shed light on what activities may impact the brain in different ways. Therefore while this study is only scratching the surface of the cause-effect complexities of rigorous conditioning, it exposes a fascinating piece of the puzzle. Ref. PLoS ONE, Wired.com