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Do extreme sports athletes have different brains?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Alex Honnold is the best free solo climber in the world, man can climb el cap or half dome in a few hours without a rope, where it takes a normal climber days to get up. But the man literally has an underdeveloped brain, or at least part of it. After doing brain scans found out his amygdala has ZERO activation, so he literally experiences fear differently than a normal person, if at all!
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-neuroimaging-can-tell-us-about-our-unconscious-biases/
Activation comes and goes. The page isn't loading for me but I'm skeptical of your interpretation.
https://youtu.be/tDR9lMDPA30
1:40ish
Thanks for the alternate source!
Yup, they measured that. This one individual wasn't experiencing any sort of fight-or-flight in that tube. I'm going to say we can't draw much in the way of big conclusions. Reminder again that activation just means how hard it's working at a given moment.
Honestly, the testimonials from ex-girlfriends is more interesting to me.