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General Climbing Discussion

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El Cap, Freerider free solo by Alex Honnold 14-Jun-2017 At 10:00:52 PM Martym

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The world of sport science full of attempts to establish exactly what genetic difference there is between certain athletes and mere mortals. It's just when journalists mangle it in their interpretation.

It could well be that Mr H has physically changed his brain through years and years of focus. Or he has such great control over it that when running tests he simply scores different average for certain stimuli.
Whether or not being born with an underactive amygdala is a prerequisite for solo climbers is a stretch - imagine trying to find a control group for that... And the Amygdalae do actually have other functions - primarily emotion and decision making... Alex seems to display normal emotions and good decision making in his every day life (sleeping in a van, peeing in a bottle...)

On the other hand, I don't think it's belittling his achievement any more than saying LeBron James is good a basketball because he is 6'8 with a 7 foot wingspan. I imagine it's just scientific curiosity (and average journalism)
Apparently every mountaineer who successfully climb past 8000m without supplementary oxygen has an ACE gene.

Understanding how Honnold does what he does can have positive impacts (as mentioned above, many people need to control their emotional response to danger). PTSD sufferers could be helped if they are able to gain some control over unwanted reactions.