Football or neuroscience? More than meets eye occurs on playing field

Former University of Florida receiver Taylor Jacobs wasn’t thinking about neurons and axons as he splish-splashed into the end zone from 7 yards out during last year’s Tennessee game.

Nor did he give thought to the vicious wind, pelting rain or the more than 108,722 disbelieving fans, startled by the Gators’ sudden scoring drive. He blindly snagged former quarterback Rex Grossman’s second-quarter pass for a touchdown, shutting out a hurricane-sized measure of distractions along the way.

Such concentration illustrates the complex signaling process that takes place in the brain, not just for athletic feats, but to accomplish simple acts, such as buying a stadium hot dog, say scientists at UF’s Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute.

“The main thing that goes on in the brain is inhibition — turning neurons off,” said Dr. Barry Ache, director of the UF Center for Smell and Taste, where scientists conduct research that may help treat smell and taste disorders — common in patients with cancer or Alzheimer’s disease — or develop “electronic noses” to detect explosives or illicit drugs. “The important signal rises above that massive network of inhibition. It breaks through. That’s how the brain works in a simplistic nutshell.”

It’s how football players work, too. But they take it further, actually training to shut out distractions such as angry heavens or grumpy fans, says Jacobs, who vividly recalls his second quarter touchdown during UF’s 30-13 upset victory.

“I can honestly say I did not see the ball,” said Jacobs, training in the preseason with the Washington Redskins. “We came in expecting a few light showers. Of course, it was like a monsoon out there. But in the heat of battle, you put obstacles like rain on the sidelines. I saw the ball for a second when it was still yards away, but I didn’t see it hit my hands. I felt it. That’s when I grabbed it.”

Sounds straightforward enough. Jacobs described the play as a “simple” fade route to the end zone where he didn’t have to be open, but instead had to rely on his ability to make a play on an up-for-grabs ball.

But what actually happened in order for Jacobs to make the catch is testimony to the natural wonder of the human brain. Made up of a hundred billion neurons — cells that gather and transmit electrochemical signals through delicate strands called axons — the brain is the center of all thought and emotion. It is responsible for the coordination and control of all bodily activities, from temperature to movement, and interprets everything people see, hear, taste, smell and feel. The neurons cry out to one another across synaptic connections, giving living creatures abilities that make the world’s most complex machines look crude. A simple pass route is far from simple from a neuroscientific perspective.

“Just about every part of the brain gets involved at one time or another,” said Dr. Keith D. White, a psychology professor who uses sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging equipment at the McKnight Brain Institute to study how therapies affect the brain response of people who have had strokes or who have psychiatric disorders.

Beginning with sensors in the eyes that detect light, White described how information is transferred electrochemically to the back of the brain, where the primary visual cortex interprets vision.

“It analyzes the edges, colors and shapes and begins to figure out what all of these things are out there in front of you,” White said. “Other regions nearby are particularly good at analyzing motion. They are able to pick out an object flying through the air and figure out how fast it’s going and what its trajectory is.”

A separate set of pathways near the base of the brain helps identify the flying object as a football, as opposed to a bird or some other flying object, White said. Meanwhile, information flows along the sides of the brain, making it possible for a player to move his body to the proper place to catch the football.

“The lower pathway enables you to access your memories: ‘What is a football? What am I supposed to do with it? I’m supposed to catch it, and I’m supposed to run with it,’ ” White said. “You have to remember all these things. And it’s all happening real fast. Bing, bang, boom. Light comes into the eye, makes an image, activates these things, and it all converges in the front of the brain, where you’re making decisions. The frontal parts receive information from your memory and current assessment of situation, and allow you to decide what you want to happen, and when.”

And if the player encounters an unexpected defender?

“It’s a never-ending process, with lots of little decisions along the way,” White said. “Do I run toward this guy or away from him? Is that a hole where I can get through the line? You’re always updating the assessment of the situation with information from incoming images and your memories.”

It seems chaotic, but researchers learn more each day about the manner in which simultaneous, cooperative activity of millions of neurons combines sensory messages, past experience, emotions and goals to create particular meanings to individuals, White said. It’s how people make sense of the world. The process intrigues biomedical engineers, who take design cues from living systems and use them to make remarkable innovations, such as potentially creating machines using silicon and neural tissues to help patients who have suffered a stroke regain movement. The challenge for scientists is to build machines that, like living creatures, can adapt. That day will come, said Dr. William Ditto, chairman of UF’s biomedical engineering department.

“It’s well understood how to build a machine that can throw a perfect spiral from Point A to Point B,” Ditto said. “But what’s more changing and uncertain than going out to catch a pass? Say the play changes on the line, then the receiver can’t get open and has to do something else, all while worrying about getting hit — machines or computers don’t have that ability to adapt. But even little kids can do it.”

More amazing, players don’t have to dwell on the process, either. “The way it feels, you open your eyes and you see,” White said. “You don’t have a sense that your brain is working hard to figure out what it is you’re looking at.”

That awareness is what psychologists call preattentive perception, a phenomenon that comes in pretty handy for a football player.

Catching a pass is tough enough without worrying about what 100 billion neurons are doing.