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Updated: May 19, 2026
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Published on: May 19, 2023
Pilot expertise and hippocampal size: associations with longitudinal flight simulator performance
Maheen M Adamson1, Peter J Bayley, Blake K Scanlon
1War Related Illness and Injury Study Center and the Sierra-Pacific MIRECC, Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. madamson@stanford.edu
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
|September 6, 2012
Summary
Expertise enhances flight simulator performance, especially with a larger hippocampus. This suggests brain structure and acquired knowledge interact to maintain complex skills.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Factors
Background:
- Hippocampal volume may change with intensive training and expertise acquisition.
- The hippocampus's role in maintaining skilled performance is not fully understood.
- The Stanford/Veterans Affairs Aviation MRI Study provides longitudinal data on brain structure and expertise.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between hippocampal volume and aviation expertise.
- To examine how hippocampal volume influences longitudinal flight simulator performance across different expertise levels.
Main Methods:
- Studied 60 pilots (ages 45-69) with varying aviation expertise levels.
- Assessed hippocampal volume and flight simulator performance at 3 annual time points.
- Expertise was defined by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration pilot proficiency ratings.
Main Results:
- Higher expertise correlated with better baseline performance, but not baseline hippocampal volume.
- A significant interaction was found: larger hippocampal volume predicted better performance in highly expert pilots over time.
Conclusions:
- Expertise in complex domains involves both learned knowledge and hippocampal-dependent processes.
- The hippocampus may play a crucial role in the maintenance of high-level skills.
