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why do ice skaters not get dizzy
Skaters never get dizzy, right? Not quite. They feel it too, just far less. Their secret is a trick, plus a retrained brain.
Trick one is spotting. Fix your eyes on one spot, turn the body, and snap the head round last, so the world holds still.
Now the cause of dizziness. In each inner ear sit tiny loops filled with fluid. Turn your head and the fluid lags behind, because of inertia.
Hair-like sensors in the loop feel that lagging fluid and tell the brain, you are spinning. Keep spinning and the fluid catches up.
Then you stop. The body is still, but the fluid keeps sloshing round. Your ears say spinning, your eyes say still. That clash is dizziness.
Trick two is training. After years of spinning, the brain learns to trust the ear's alarm less, like getting used to a siren next door.
Researchers compared ballet dancers with rowers. The dancers' brain area for ear signals was smaller, and they felt less dizzy. Skaters test as less reactive too.
So, on one board: the ear still sends its alarm, even in a record spin of three hundred forty-two turns a minute. Spotting and training quiet it.
Skaters are not immune to dizziness; they just taught their brains to stay calm while the world spins.