The brain perceives the world at a rate of about 10 bits per second \ stacker news ~science

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The brain perceives the world at a rate of about 10 bits per second

201 sats \ 6 comments \ @Imyourfed 25 Nov science

I just learned this cool thing about our brain. It turns out that our brains take in a lot of information very fast, but only give out the info very slow. Scientists at Caltech found out that our eyes send 100 megabits of info to our brains every second, but our brains only process it at 10 bits per second. So, even with awesome tech like Elon Musk's Neuralink, our brains won't speed up. It's just how we're wired.

Article : https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-information-entering-our-brains-dwarfs-the-amount-coming-out-why

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5 replies \ @SimpleStacker 25 Nov

That seems like a bit misleading title.

It's clearly false because I can process and understand an entire image which is much more than 10 bits in less than a second.

The article is referring to how much output signals the brain sends to your nervous systems. All this tells me is that we don't require complex information output in order to control our physical bodies. It has very little to do with the "speed of perception" or the speed at which our brain "processes information"

37 sats \ 4 replies \ @Imyourfed OP 25 Nov

I need a crash course in reading articles and the room. My bad for overthinking it—sometimes I process less than 10 bits per second myself 🙄

I've pinned you so that everyone can understand it clearly as I can't edit the main title anymore

11 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 25 Nov

Thanks, and no problem. It's still an interesting article, with many facts I didn't know before, so I appreciate that you posted it.

It is kinda interesting how so much of our brain's processing is information-only.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Imyourfed OP 25 Nov

It's still an interesting article, with many facts I didn't know before

Exactly! I got too excited that I little bit messed up lol

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 25 Nov

It's still a bit surprising and I'm not sure I fully understand it. Is it 10 bits/second at some kind of "at-rest" state?

Because when I think about typing, I am moving all 10 of my fingers simultaneously at a rate higher than one movement per finger per second, which seems like it would require more than 10 bits/second of output to control.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Imyourfed OP 25 Nov

It refers to purposeful signals the brain sends to control muscles, like typing. Typing feels fast much of it relies on learned patterns and muscle memory, which simplify the brain's output requirements