Fighter pilots’ brains are more sensitive?

Links: - Journal of Neuroscience - MRC - Wellcome Trust - Professor Masud Husain Cognitive tests and MRI scans have shown significant differences in the brains of fighter pilots when compared to a control group, according to a new study led by scientists from UCL. The study, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience , compares the cognitive performance of 11 front-line RAF (Royal Air Force) Tornado fighter pilots to a control group of a similar IQ with no previous experience of piloting aircraft. All the participants completed two 'cognitive control' tasks which were used to investigate rapid decision making. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a type of MRI brain scan, was then used to examine the structure of white matter connections between brain regions associated with cognitive control. The researchers found that fighter pilots have superior cognitive control, showing significantly greater accuracy on one of the cognitive tasks, despite being more sensitive to irrelevant, distracting information. The MRI scans revealed differences between pilots and controls in the microstructure of white matter in the right hemisphere of the brain. Senior author Professor Masud Husain, UCL Institute of Neurology and UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: 'We were interested in the pilots because they're often operating at the limits of human cognitive capability - they are an expert group making precision choices at high speed.