Super Bowl Brains

This is a very interesting topic to discuss and what seems to be an amazing article. I would not have thought of considering capabilities of the quarterbacks brain when analyzing their talent; I have, until now, thought this was based on athletic ability coming from years of training and playing. It is incredible that they can develop such abilities to function at a higher level.

This is my favorite quote from the article: "A great athlete displays unconscious competence, which is high performance achieved by reflex without thinking. This is what all of those thousands of hours of practice achieve, moving action from conscious thought to reflex, but outside thoughts disrupt the flow of unconscious muscle memory." I think this is true when we become experts in anything. We have an understanding that becomes unconscious. I think that's why there are so many brilliant professors, but they aren't all the best teachers..They can no longer break something down because it has become too automatic for them.

This is an interesting topic to blog about! As a previous poster stated, I too always thought that athletic ability was predominately the reason for their success, (although it is still very important). It makes sense that many hours of practice not only create more physical ability but also new synapses that fire during the game. Its very cool that it is this that allows them to play at such a high level.

It is very interesting how the synapses can strengthen and allow the quarterback perform at a high level. The concept of neurogenesis is similar to this, about how the brain can produce new neurons from damaged or disappearing ones. I find these facts surprising and just adds to my knowledge of how incredible the human brain could be.

Good to know there are some other football fans out there! It is interesting to think that there is something programmed in people's brains that makes them clutch. Some of the most famous athletes were famous for being there best in the finals, and now we can see this isnt just a coincidence.

I think this is an interesting argument of nature vs. nurture. Obviously, having the ability to be extra focused does have some genetic traits (look at Eli, his brother Peyton is a superstar and his dad Archie was a superstar when he played), but are you able to teach yourself to become more and more focused? In my opinion, you can. Especially with repetition, being in clutch football situations in your entire life and learning what works and what doesn't. Very interesting about being able to control your body until they need to perform their best, somebody should teach LeBron that.

This is a very interesting article indeed. It makes me wonder if players on the Professional level of other sports benefit from this "heightened" sense of brain ability. Another question then could be asked if this brain wiring is caused by Hebb's rule or if it is caused by some genetic condition, or neither. One could also ask it it was possible for people to acquire this brain ability or if, or it if was pointless if it were genetic and they didn't possess that gene. It is interesting to think of the world of sports through science's eyes.

I wonder if this "trained brained" is only this active in time of need, game scenario, or if their brains fire at this rate on a daily basis. If it is only games or practice, I wonder how they have to prepare themselves for their high caliber performance. Maybe throughout the years of playing football it has become engrained in their minds and every time they step on the field their brains automatically start processing information faster.