Football goalkeepers think faster than you: according to science, they have a different brain

soccer goalkeepers They have something special. Depending on their position on the playing field, they must take very fast solutions, based on incomplete information from various sources. For example, the position of a striker and the sound of the ball hitting their foot can be a clue to when and where they should go to avoid being hit in the goal. But everything can change in the blink of an eye if another player intervenes.

All this has led many scientists to suspect that goalie brain It must be from a different test. That there is something that allows them to make decisions much faster than anyone else. However, no studies have been conducted to confirm this. The first to do this were members of a group of researchers from Dublin City University, In Ireland. The first author of the study is Michael Quinn, psychologist and former professional soccer goalkeeper. Although his father is much more famous for the sport, Niall Quinnbecame a striker for the Irish national team.

Quinn and the rest of the team conducted a series of tests on a group of volunteers consisting of three populations: football goalkeepers, players of the same sportbut in other positions, and general population, which had nothing to do with the football field. This experiment demonstrated for the first time that soccer goalkeepers actually perceive the world around them differently than the rest of us mortals. So, did the chicken or the egg come first?

The special mind of football goalkeepers

Quinn and his colleagues wanted to calculate temporary link window study participants. This term refers to a time window in which inputs from different directions merge to form one perceptual event. In other words, we are talking about the time it takes to integrate information from different senses in order to be able to use it together.

This window should be wide enough to include all the stimuli that contextually related, but narrow enough to use them together and exclude irrelevant ones. When soccer goalkeepersthey must be able to exclude, for example, the sound of someone whistling in the stands, but simultaneously use visual information about the position of the ball and the sound of a striker hitting the goal.

A commonly used test to measure these parameters is to have participants watch a series of sparkles (visual information) followed by buzzing (auditory information) and count the number of pulses of each stimulus you saw or heard. When stimuli are presented very close together, confusion may arise, such as thinking that the number of beeps is the same as the number of flashes. However, when they are separated in time, it becomes easier distinguish one from another. This way you can see if both things are being processed at the same time, rather than one first and the other later.

During this experiment, it was noticed that the window of temporary communication was already in football goalkeepers. That is, they were able to integrate information from different feelings and use it at the same time.

This could explain why they can make decisions so quickly compared to other football players and, above all, other people in the rest of the population.

What came first: the chicken or the egg?

Once these authors have seen how to demonstrate the special mentality of soccer goalkeepers, they want to take further steps. The first step will be to check if there are other professions or even other specific positions of football players who have an even narrower window.

Next they want to discern the order of phenomena. That is, they are looking to find out whether the grueling training of goalies helps shape their brains to better integrate sensory information. Or if, on the contrary, people are noticed who have this ability from birth. more eager to play football. They can go through several positions, and when the coach confirms that their job is to block goals, they remain in goal.

It’s a mystery at the moment. One thing is clear: soccer goalkeepers see the world differently. It doesn’t matter if it’s a gift or a result years and years of training.