Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

by Alex Hutchinson

assigning the blame to mind or muscles is an often hopeless and sometimes misleading task. After all, the brain is part of the body. This was a point emphasized by Michio Ikai and Arthur Steinhaus in 1961, when they studied the psychological effects of surprise gunshots on muscle strength (see Chapter 6): “[P]sychology,” they wrote, “is a special case of brain physiology.” In other words, feelings and emotions and urges are as physiologically real as changes in core temperature or decreases in hydration, and are mediated by chemical signals. So when oxygen levels in the brain drop, are we compelled by failing neurons or safety circuitry to slow down, or do we simply decide to slow down? Is there a difference? Whatever the answers (and I don’t think we know them at this point), the outcome is clear. We slow down.