Why woodpeckers actually don't need shock-absorbing skulls to headbang

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Why woodpeckers actually don't need shock-absorbing skulls to headbang
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These birds have incredible hammering power but don't seem to get concussions or migraines. How?

But this idea presents a paradox. “The birds accelerate their head up to a certain speed, giving it this movement energy they want to transfer to the tree to damage or hit away parts of the bark,” Van Wassenbergh says. Yet a shock-absorbing skull would also lessen the energy that reaches the tree. “People don’t use hammers that have a shock absorber built into it; it just makes hammering quite inefficient,” Van Wassenbergh explains further.

“With these data we show that it’s a pure waste of energy to have a shock absorber there,” Van Wassenbergh says. “You could achieve the same effect as a shock absorber by just hitting the tree less violently.” Finally, he and his collaborators investigated what might be preventing the woodpeckers from becoming concussed. Using computer simulations of a water-filled cavity to represent avian and human brains, they found that woodpeckers aren’t subjected to as much damaging pressure as a bulkier human brain would be if it experienced the same deceleration.

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