Researchers have concluded in previous studies that the structure of the human heart may be different from the heart of a chimpanzee. Using ultrasound of the heart, they found that the left ventricle of the heart, which is where the heart pumps the heart, in chimpanzees has bundles of muscle embedded in “turgidized” tissue.

Trabeculation or trabeculation refers to the formation of small and network-like muscle bundles inside the ventricles of the heart. Tortigated tissues are like little blades that help the heart muscle to work better when pumping blood.

The aim of the researchers in the new study was to investigate the structure of tortiginated tissue in other great apes. They found that other great apes have the same heart structure as chimpanzees. In contrast, humans have a smooth wall in their left ventricle. This difference is especially obvious at the bottom of the left ventricle. In the lower part of the left ventricle, the smoothness of the human heart is approximately four times greater than that of the great apes.

Most people feel refreshed after drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. Others even feel that this drink has curbed their hunger. Many people on social networks say about the benefits of consuming this drink on weight loss; But researches have just begun to discover how caffeine and other compounds in coffee affect weight.

Several diets and guidelines nicknamed the “coffee escape” have spread since the beginning of this year and have increased people’s interest in drinking coffee or caffeine in order to lose weight. These sources claim that adding homemade spices or commercial supplements to a cup of coffee, or even drinking the mixture all at once, in the first few seconds of the hunger experience, can increase the weight loss effect. Experts are still confused about this claim: Does coffee, and specifically caffeine, help people lose weight? In this case, how long does this weight loss effect last?

According to rumors, coffee, and other caffeinated products can lead to quick and easy weight loss. This rationale is partially dependent on coffee’s ability to stimulate the digestive system. The caffeine in coffee can cause intestinal muscles to contract, which results in bowel movement.

Therefore, the digestive system clears its contents a little faster than usual. On the other hand, caffeine is a diuretic and urinating more can cause a decrease in body water weight. These combined effects on digestion and water weight occur quickly after coffee consumption, but are short-lived and do not result in permanent weight loss. However, coffee consumption in longer intervals seems to have different effects.

According to a 2023 study that evaluated the coffee-drinking habits of more than 150,000 participants, over a four-year period, drinking unsweetened coffee had a moderate effect on reducing the rate of weight gain, while adjusting for other lifestyle variables. For every extra cup of coffee the participants drank, they were almost 100 grams less overweight than their peers. Of course, most people probably don’t feel such small weight differences.

Other studies have reported similar results. “You’re still gaining weight with coffee, but the weight gain is less compared to others,” says Frank Hu, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of the 2023 study.

Coffee consumption is also associated with a slight decrease in body fat. According to one study, people who drank four cups of instant coffee in a day had 4% less fat mass. They also lost a small amount of overall weight after the six-month period. These people were compared to a group that drank a drink that tasted and looked like coffee and followed the same diet and exercise habits.

Caffeine, the main bioactive compound in coffee, appears to be one of the main drivers of weight loss. This combination is responsible for activating the process of thermogenesis (heat generation) in the diet or the energy required to absorb and store food. On average, almost 10% of energy is spent on digesting food. Studies have shown that caffeine can increase this amount by increasing people’s metabolic rate.

The higher the metabolic rate, the more energy the body uses at rest. The digestion process speeds up and causes the organs inside the abdomen to use more energy and burn more calories. Overall, the energy boost is small: coffee drinkers may burn 80 to 150 more calories per day, the equivalent of eating a few Oreo cookies. However, those few extra calories lost can add up over time.

Caffeine is believed to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating the body’s “fight-or-flight” response, and is also involved in blocking adenosine-bound receptors. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that promotes sleepiness and promotes relaxation. Caffeine then leads to physiological responses in the sympathetic nervous system such as increased heart rate and alertness.

Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, says that these effects in turn lead to burning more calories. Caffeine can increase fat oxidation, which is the process of breaking down fat stored in tissues to produce energy. The same issue can explain why coffee consumption is associated with fat mass reduction.

Besides caffeine, coffee contains several polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) that can affect weight. Chlorogenic acid, the polyphenol that gives coffee its bitter taste and strong smell, can help maintain stable blood sugar levels. Since food cravings can be linked to blood sugar fluctuations, more stable blood sugar can help regulate appetite. The bitter taste also plays a role in this process. According to some evidence, the gut senses more bitter compounds and regulates appetite hormones to reduce food intake.

The ability to quickly receive visual information and make decisions based on it is one of the key skills of athletes, especially in team sports such as football or basketball. According to a 2013 study in the journal Scientific Reports, professional ice hockey, soccer, and rugby players are better visual learners than people with lower abilities in these sports.

Professional athletes in the mentioned sports were compared with elite amateurs such as college athletes and European Olympic Sports Training Center players. They were also evaluated against non-athlete university students. Professional athletes performed better than both groups, performing better on tasks such as focusing on objects and tracking them on a screen. In other words, the brains of these athletes are more skilled in processing dynamic visual scenes or the moving world around them. Elite amateurs were evaluated better than non-athletes.

Jocelyn Faber, author of the 2013 study, told LiveScience that the study’s data could be used to improve training for athletes and determine the best possible time to return to sports after injury. For example, assessing how an athlete can optimally process visual information and not make judgmental errors can prevent their early return to sports and reduce the likelihood of re-injury.

Acrobatic athletes such as divers and gymnasts must become proficient at executing movement sequences without conscious thought. This phenomenon is called muscle memory.

A 2023 study in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that the brain plans and coordinates repetitive movements, such as those of trained athletes and musicians, by compressing and decompressing important information. At first, the sequence and timing of steps are programmed separately in the brain, but with practice, these separate elements integrate seamlessly into a stream of coordinated brain activity. This process involves a network of neurons in the cortex (outer layer of the brain) that is responsible for regulating movements.

In baseball, the hitter must accurately and quickly predict the fate of each ball that the pitcher throws. For example, will the ball enter the strike zone and how fast will it come?

Brain activity also changes based on the hitter’s prediction. Specifically, according to a 2022 study in the journal Cerebral Cortex, neurons in an area of ​​the brain called the left ventral cingulate cortex change in these scenarios. According to the authors, this is likely due to the hitter’s unique ability to associate visual cues about the pitcher’s movements with the potential trajectory of the ball.

Structurally, research has also shown that the superior temporal sulcus (STS) is thicker in professional divers than in novices. The STS is a brain region that plays an important role in motor perception and helps decipher the intentions behind movements. This feature makes sense when diving; Because these athletes often learn by watching other divers perform. Of course, this also applies to other sports.

Acrobatic athletes such as gymnasts have impressive depth perception skills, or the ability to perceive their body in space. A complex network of neurons in the cerebellum, a region at the base of the brain, allows athletes to quickly correct their trajectory in the air or keep their balance on the machine if things don’t go according to plan.

If the safety network of spatial perception is disturbed, it can cause the athlete to lose control of his body in the middle, with potentially fatal consequences. This happened to American gymnast Simone Biles during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Athletes must divide their attention appropriately and dynamically switch between different ways of thinking. For example, a soccer player who is dribbling the ball during a match must quickly change his direction if he collides with a player from the opposing team.

The cognitive skills needed to shift attention can be seen in everyday life and tasks such as listening to a podcast while cleaning the house. A 2022 study in the International Journal of Sports Psychology provided evidence that athletes perform much better in this area than non-athletes.

The cognitive benefits of exercise training last throughout life. Perhaps there is no better example than Olga Kotelko, a Canadian track and field athlete who holds more than 30 world records. Before Olga’s death in 2014 at the age of 95, Kramer and her colleagues examined her brain in the laboratory.

With age, the white matter of the brain, which is responsible for connecting neurons in different parts, deteriorates. However, the researchers found that the white matter of Olga’s brain remained more intact than that of less active women in the past thirty years, even though she was in her mid-90s.

Elga was also faster in responding to cognitive tasks than other 90-year-olds and had a better memory than them. Of course, general results cannot be obtained from just one athlete. However, according to the researchers, there was only one pattern. Because of this, he offered scientists only a small perspective of the long-term effects of exercise on the brain.

Strengthening the brain training of athletes from a young age can lead to more sports achievements in the future. According to Kylie Steele, a sports scientist at the University of Western Sydney in Australia, at some point in an athlete’s training, the human body can’t go further, but cognitive skills can be worked on.

Steele and his colleagues believe that coaches should focus more on athletes’ cognitive abilities, such as memory and decision-making skills. This issue is especially important during the early years of life when the brain is more flexible. In ball sports such as soccer, this type of drill involves asking players to use their non-dominant feet to kick the ball. Steele suggests: