This Is Your Brain On Trail Running

Looking for answers from EEGs

- Doug Mayer

The lab tech says, “Now we’re going to attach the electrodes.”

I am in the Applied Cognition Lab, at the University of Utah, seeing what science says about the effects of trail running on my brain. Rachel Hopman, a graduate student, smiles and laughs easily as she brandishes what appears to be a hypodermic needle.

“I saw this in a movie,” I say. “You’re taking me to a black site, aren’t you?”

“It’s just saline,” Rachel says nonchalantly. “Sometimes it’s hard to get a good signal.”

My friend Yitka Winn, also a Trail Runner writer, is along for the ride. We exchange uncertain glances, and I shrug. We asked to come here. We should trust her, right?

As she casually squirts the saline onto our scalps, Rachel explains that it improves conductivity. And that’s the point, after all—to capture and record our brains’ electrical signals. In this case, we’ll do it before and after trail running. Within minutes, our heads are in tight black electroencephalogram (EEG) caps, wires exploding outward.

Does trail running rejuvenate our minds? I wanted to know. I do know that trail running is my Valium, and I self-medicate recklessly. One hour for maintenance, two when my job sucks, three when the world makes no sense and I’m banging my fists into the dashboard.