A landmark NeuroTracker study published Nature Scientific Reports showed that elite athletes have brains with superior capacities for learning, which could be a critical factor as to why they can achieve such high levels of performance on the sports field. Professor Faubert, the inventor of NeuroTracker explained the meaning of this for world-class athletes,
“The fact that they are there…is because they are more plastic. I think that’s one of the criteria. You would think that this brain is optimal at the highest competitive level, that it’s reached its maximum potential. But maybe they are there because they can acquire new potential so much more rapidly and so more efficiently.”
Neuroplasticity is also known to be a key factor in brain health, with reduced plasticity being a related factor for increased risks of cognitive conditions such as dementia in older populations.