Athletes don't just have better bodies, their brains work better too, study finds

Athletes don’t just have better bodies than most people, their brains also work better too, an American study has found.

According to the research, athletes have more finely tuned brains which allow them to block out distractions and focus on the game in hand.

The study, conducted by researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois, found that those who do sports can filter out distractions, just like static on a radio.

From studying just under 1,000 student athletes, around half at the elite Division One level, the athletes were able to ignore electrical noise in the brain in order to better process external sounds such as a teammate or coach giving instructions.

The study’s author, Nina Kraus of Northwestern University said: “No one would argue against the fact that sports lead to better physically fitness, but we don't always think of brain fitness and sports.

“We’re saying that playing sports can tune the brain to better understand one's sensory environment.”

“A serious commitment to physical activity seems to track with a quieter nervous system,” Kraus said. “And perhaps, if you have a healthier nervous system, you may be able to better handle injury or other health problems.”

The study examined the brain health of 495 female and male Northwestern student athletes and 493 control subjects matched by age and sex, publishing the findings in the Sports Health journal.

The subjects were played speech mixed with different levels of background noise through earbuds, measuring brain activity using electrodes on their scalps.

They found that athletes had better responses to the sound than non-athletes.

Kraus likens the phenomenon to listening to a DJ on the radio: “Think of background electrical noise in the brain like static on the radio,” Kraus said.

“There are two ways to hear the DJ better: minimize the static or boost the DJ’s voice. We found that athlete brains minimize the background ‘static’ to hear the ‘DJ’ better.”