What would it take to get you aboard the next shuttle mission? While some wealthy, private citizens have paid fortunes to venture into space, other people would turn down equal amounts just so that they could stay on the ground. One woman told me she was convinced that astronauts must be given narcotics just before blast off because no one in their right mind would willingly consent to such a thing. I tried to point out that the last thing NASA would want is a drugged crew flying their rocket but got no where. You had to be crazy or on something and that was that.
Of course, the idea of chemically influencing people to volunteer for dangerous and sometimes even suicidal missions goes way back. Much was made, for example, of films captured right after WW II that showed scenes of Kamikaze pilots drinking a ceremonial cup of sake just before taking off. Was rice wine enough to cloud men's minds or had something more potent been added? As it happens, any such inducement was unnecessary as the young men involved were all highly motivated and, just to be sure, they were only given enough fuel for a one-way trip. Similar claims have, as one might suspect, been made regarding the more recent crop of terrorist bombers. Here again, cultural mores and religious indoctrination are more than enough to convince some people that blowing themselves up will serve a higher purpose.
But even in the absence of all chemical concoctions and any hint of brain washing, there are still a small number of unique individuals out there who will knowingly put their lives on the line. This portion of the population includes both those who are admired for their bravery, such as test pilots, and those who are thought of as nothing more than foolhardy daredevils such as bungee jumpers. What the two groups seem to share is an undeniable love of an adrenaline rush. Looked at in that way, it could be said that a drug was indeed at the bottom of it all. However, in this case, the drug is natural, legal and internally manufactured.
The whole story is, of course, far more complicated. In fact, the adrenaline is only one in an elaborate soup of chemicals that bathe the sensory system during times of extreme stress. But there's something even beyond that. Just think about it. Naval aviators who land on the heaving deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the night are exhibiting a behavior that's light years beyond the bungee jumper experiencing the euphoria of stepping off into thin air. So, clearly, there's something involved besides an adrenaline rush. That "something" may have to do with the way some brains are built. How else can one account for an astronaut being composed enough to catch a snooze while sitting atop a rocket waiting to blast off?
New research suggests that the way in which the cerebral cortex interfaces with the rest of the brain may hold the key. The cortex covers the top of the brain and serves to connect lots of parts with lots of other parts. In other words, it's like a switchboard that allows us to relate our thoughts...one to another. It's by far the most recently evolved portion of the brain and the part that contributes the most to our uniqueness as human beings. The higher up the scale of life, the more complexity we see in this area.
So here's the way it seems to work. People who can remain cool when blasting off into space have a cerebral cortex that limits the amount of information their brains process during a launch. They are keenly aware of everything that needs to be monitored but all extraneous information, such as the myriad of things that might go wrong, are filtered out. Where the average person would experience sensory overload and panic, the professional pilot attends only to what is absolutely necessary. You might say that he's not fully conscious of the big picture...and you would be right. However, it's precisely because of his limited awareness that the daring young man survives another day.
