Dave Treadway’s DNA might be better than yours. Photo Eric Berger
Natural Born Huckers?
With new DNA research coming to Whistler thrill-seekers can get ready to spit for science. It’s gonna be a rush.
By Lisa Richardson
Cynthia Thompson has a theory that could revolutionize the ski and snowboard industry and the University of British Columbia Ph.D. candidate is testing it out at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival this April. She hopes to entice 500 willing festival-goers during the ten-day swag-orgy to take a break from collecting samples and give a sample instead – of saliva.
Thompson’s hypothesis is that skiers and snowboarders are hard-wired to want to get high. The sensation of excitement or ‘high’ is related to the release in the brain of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The natural high a skier or snowboarder experiences when they ski fast, pin it down a narrow couloir, or huck a large cliff is similar physiologically to a drug-high.
“Dopamine is being released between the neurons, and the overload of dopamine is what gives the pleasant rush,” explains Thompson, adding that chocolate consumption and sexual arousal can have the same physiological effect.
Related to motivation and reward, pleasure and gratification, dopamine is produced by specific brain cells or neurons and targets select receptors in the brain. These receptors in the dopamine pathway vary genetically. Scientists have recently theorised that people with more dopamine receptors in the brain take up the chemical more quickly. This higher uptake means they need to produce more dopamine to get the same high as their counterparts, and will tend towards more sensation-seeking behaviour, including participation in high-risk sports or drug-use.
Thompson’s research is the first to look at the possibility that genetics may play a role in individuals’ inclination towards sensation-seeking in sport. The former ski-bum has a hunch that thrill-seeking is not just related to gender, personality or environmental influences, but might be encoded in our DNA.
“In the long run, making a genetic connection would help to de-stigmatize this type of sensation-seeking behaviour,” says Thompson. “Some people are prone to making risky lifestyle choices or are more vulnerable to addiction and they get a negative rap for it. So to show there’s some underlying genetics would help to create some acceptance.”
Thompson hopes her research will also motivate funding for at-risk populations to channel their energies towards outdoor education programs. “What lower economic group of kids will become skiers of their own accord? All the high-risk sports are expensive to get started in. Inner-city kids prone to thrill-seeking will never be exposed to skiing or snowboarding on their own.”
Thompson’s hypothesis might also explain the success of Whistler’s Zero Ceiling Society. One of the official charities of the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival, Zero Ceiling’s main focus is giving at-risk youth an opportunity for a better lifestyle.
Zero Ceiling has intuited the connection Thompson is hoping to prove, offering snowboarding as the alternative fix for program participants, around which they can build new lives and habits. Only 4–8 participants a year, out of more than fifty applicants, are able to take part in the Whistler work-to-live program.
Although Zero Ceiling receives substantial support from Whistler Blackcomb, society chair Glenn Mishaw says, “We definitely have concerns about funding drying up.” Research like Thompson’s can only help the cause. And perhaps oneday people with a known genetic propensity towards risky behavior can be offered something that just might save their lives– a natural high.
