Fighter pilots have more sensitive brain

LONDON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University College London found significant differences between the brains of fighter pilots and those of controls with similar intelligence.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found the pilots' brains were more likely than the controls to have enhanced responses to both relevant and irrelevant stimuli. The enhanced responses were linked to structural alterations in the brain and suggested an association between expertise and changes in the connections between brain areas.

"So, it's not just that the relevant areas of the brain are larger -- but that the connections between key areas are different. Whether people are born with these differences or develop them is currently not known," senior author Masud Husain said in a statement. "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."

Husain and colleagues examined cognitive performance and brain function of 11 top Royal Air Force fighter pilots and a group of similar controls without piloting experience. Diffusion tensor imaging -- a type of magnetic resonance imaging brain scan -- was used to examine the connections between brain regions, the researchers said.