--- Indy Rutks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Date:         Tue, 4 Apr 2000 10:01:52 -0500
> Reply-to:     Indy Rutks <[log in to unmask]>
> From:         Indy Rutks <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      Professor says hot helmets induce hockey violence
> To:           [log in to unmask]
>
> from http://www.nationalpost.com/home.asp?f=000404/250229
>
> ==========================================================
> Professor says hot helmets induce hockey violence
>
> Ian Bailey
> National Post
>
> VANCOUVER - A criminologist who has linked higher brain temperatures to
> increased aggression says hockey helmets with air conditioning could
> decrease on-ice violence.
>
> "You should probably have some kind of cooling system in those helmets,"
> said Ehor Boyanowsky, of Simon Fraser University. "I'm not an engineer,
> but
> it's something that should be looked at."
>
> His research shows that higher brain temperatures lower the threshold
> for
> human aggression.
>
> The theory is relevant to hockey players because their helmets might
> have
> the side effect of heating their brains, priming them to lash out on the
> ice, as happened on Feb. 21 when a helmeted Marty McSorley of the Boston
> Bruins attacked Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks with his stick.
> He
> has been charged with assault.
>
> "In a conflict situation when people are provoking each other, some of
> the
> equipment like hockey helmets actually exacerbates the situation," Prof.
> Boyanowsky said.
>
> He said his theories are also relevant to issues beyond hockey rinks,
> ranging from crime to riots to road rage to global warming. He suggests
> that
> residents of warmer countries might be operating in a state of heat
> stress
> that whittles away at their snapping point.
>
> "Nobody has ever really considered just how important this might be," he
> said. "When you become immersed in a conflict situation and you're
> unconscious of the fact that you are getting hyperthermic, that's when
> it
> becomes dangerous."
>
> Mr. Boyanowsky is continuing his research in this area at Simon Fraser
> with
> plans to test subjects in an environmental chamber. Last fall, he summed
> up
> 30 years of research with Violence and Aggression in the Heat of Passion
> and
> in Cold Blood, published in the International Journal of Law and
> Psychiatry.
>
> He suggests that when the brain is heated, the hypothalamus -- an organ
> that
> regulates the body's temperature -- produces adrenaline that might spark
> the
> side effect of making a person more likely to lash out.
>
> "We have to recognize that this is a major regulator of human behaviour
> with
> all kinds of implications for the way we design buildings,
> neighborhoods,
> and even hockey equipment," he said.
>
> "Maintaining a cool head is very important," he says. "A lot of your
> stress
> is actually arising from the thermoregulatory conflict. It turns out to
> be
> important."
>
> HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
> [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
>
 
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