Brains of ultra marathon runners give insights into our evolution, according to a new study

August 8, 2023

Have you ever wondered what was going on in the brains of ultra marathon runners? Well, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, there could be clues in there towards our evolutionary past.

Researchers from Loughborough University studied the brains of ultra endurance athletes competing in two five-day 250km races in Jordan and Sri Lanka. They found that runners who lost weight during those events showed ‘significant adaptation of cognitive function to promote foraging ability’. It would seem our hunter-gatherer past is never too far away. Runners World