The Seahorse in Your Brain: Unlocking the Hippocampus for Sports Performance cover art

The Seahorse in Your Brain: Unlocking the Hippocampus for Sports Performance

The Seahorse in Your Brain: Unlocking the Hippocampus for Sports Performance

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

This podcast delves into the hippocampus, a brain structure resembling a seahorse, and highlights its crucial role in sports performance and visual function. Traditionally recognized for its involvement in memory recording, spatial cognition, and response inhibition, the podcast explains how the hippocampus is an integral part of the ventral visual stream, aiding in the rapid and accurate identification of targets in sports. Furthermore, it discusses recent scientific findings suggesting that aerobic exercise can increase the hippocampus's size and volume, potentially improving its function, with team sports possibly offering additional benefits for hippocampal development in younger individuals. While more research is needed to directly link these improvements to on-field performance, Dr Laby emphasizes the hippocampus's significance for athletes' visual memory, spatial awareness, and decision-making.


No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.