Do Athletes Have Better Brains Than the Rest of Us?
Many people, particularly those who lack or have little athletic ability, perceive elite athletic performance as solely a function of outstanding physical abilities and skills. In a recent article with the above title, Carl Zimmer writes: “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.” His article describes several neurological studies of the brains of great athletes in an effort to learn more about how the brain works. Research suggests that the brains of elite athletes are more efficient and able to respond more quickly to rapidly changing variables, which enables their bodies to perform physical tasks much better and faster than those with average brains. To me, this suggests that great athletes, with the necessary legal education, would make good trial lawyers.
