Neymar's brain is on autopilot while dancing past opponents: Study

Brazilian striker Neymar's brain activity has suggested that he plays as if on autopilot as it is less than 10 percent the level of amateur players when de dances past his opponents, it has been revealed.

Japanese neurologists conducted brain scans on Neymar in February this year and the results have indicated minimal cerebral function when he rotated his ankle and point to the Barcelona striker's wizardry being uncannily natural.

Researcher Eiichi Naito said that from MRI images they discovered Neymar's brain activity to be less than 10 percent of an amateur player, and added that it is possible genetics is a factor, aided by the type of training he does, The Dawn reported.

The findings have been published in the Swiss journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience following a series of motor skills tests carried out on Neymar and several other athletes in Barcelona in February this year.

Naito from Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology also revealed that three Spanish second-division footballers and two top-level swimmers were also subjected to the same tests.

Naito concluded in its paper that the test results provide valuable evidence that the football brain of Neymar recruits very limited neural resources in the motor-cortical foot regions during foot movements.