In addition to being supplied with the finest in government
grade methamphetamines, fighter pilots have other significant
advantages over the rest of us. They have "superior cognitive
control." A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience
compared 11 front-line RAF pilots against a control group in two
cognitive tasks, while an MRI was used "to examine the structure
of white matter connections between brain regions associated
with cognitive control." The pilots showed superior cognitive
control and greater accuracy, despite being more sensitive to
distracting minutiae. The MRI showed the structure of their
brains differed from the control, with relevant areas of the
right side of the brain being larger, and connections between
key areas in the brain laid out differently. It's not known at
this point if the differences come from training or if pilots
are just born that way. The tests showed that when presented
with significant visual distractions, the pilots weren't much
quicker than the rest of us bas