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A recent study has discovered that the brains of ultramarathoners competing in grueling long-distance events may retain hints about evolutionary past.
Loughborough University researchers revealed that athletes who lose weight during these competitions, which may last days and span hundreds of kilometers, exhibit considerable cognitive function modification to increase foraging abilities.
This may improve your ability to find food and your chances of surviving during times of energetic stress. These changes are thought to be the result of the athletes’ brains remodeling in response to an unfavorable change in their environment.
“Throughout the human evolutionary journey, our ancestors regularly faced food insecurity and energetic stress,” Dr Danny Longman, a Lecturer in Physiology in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, noted.
“Here, we worked with ultramarathoners to study how our brains might adapt during conditions of energetic stress. In runners covering distances of 250km (155 miles), we found a significant increase in performance in cognitive tasks linked to foraging ability. This has clear adaptive value, as an improved ability to find food would increase survival chances.”
The research, conducted in partnership with Professors Jay Stock (Western University, Canada) and Jonathan Wells (University College London), focused on a group of ultra-endurance athletes who competed in two 5-day 250km footraces in Jordan and Sri Lanka.
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