Attention — Article Previews LEADER ISSUE 1

Finally, I had a free day at the beginning of the summer. So, I sat down for a moment in front of the TV and watched Rafael Nadal, the king of clay, and his amazing left hand at the French Open. Although he is a textbook example of those who are dominated by the left side of their bodies (laterality), he is perfect. Combative, predatory, powerful, and most of all his reaction speed is phenomenal. What does it depend on? How is he able to react so quickly to his opponent’s serve? How can he know whether the ball is going to fly to the left or the right? In tests on simple reaction time it takes most of us about 200 milliseconds, i.e. about one-fifth of a second. A fifth of a second is the minimum time required by the retina at the end of the human eye to take in information and transport it by the synapses to the primary visual cortex at the back of the brain and then for the brain to send a message to the spinal cord, which sets the body’s muscles in motion. So how is it possible that Nadal is able to successfully hit the ball back when it flies at about 220 kilometres per hour, over a 23.77-meter-long tennis court? In baseball, the ball flies from the pitcher’s hand to home base in just 400 milliseconds…..read more in Leader ISSUE 1