Dogs see us move in SLOW MOTION: Animal's brain processes visual information faster than humans, study finds
comments
Animals come in all shapes and sizes and now scientists have demonstrated how their form affects their perception of time.
By studying an variety of animals, researchers have discovered that a creature's body mass and metabolic rate dictates how it experiences the passing of time.
They found that a dog and fruitfly see movement - and experiences time - more slowly than a human, while a rat and a cat see movement more quickly.
Birthdays are a drag: Scientists have found that while one year seems longer to canines (pictured) that humans, it probably doesn't seem to be dragging on seven times as slowly, meaning that one dog year does not equate to seven human years
The scientists, from the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, said that time perception depends on how fast an animal's nervous system processes information in order to react to its environment.
To investigate, they showed 34 types of vertebrates, including fish, birds, lizards and mammals, a flashing light.
If the light flashes fast enough, both humans and animals see it as a constant beam, Scientific American reported.
By measuring an animal's brain activity, they examined the highest frequency that it saw the light flashing.
To animals that can see the light flashing at higher speeds, it is as if movements and situations unfold more slowly, according to the study, published in the journal Animal Behaviour.
The team think that this is advantageous to animals that need to avoid obstacles or predators quickly.
For example,chipmunks and pigeons can see a light flash 100 times a second, while cats see it flash 55 times a second.
By studying an array of different animals, a team of researchers discovered that a creature's body mass and metabolic rate dictates how they experience the passing of time. This means that a mouse (pictured left) experiences the world and time very different than an elephant, (left) for example
Animals that could see the light flash at high speeds were found to have faster metabolisms, confirming the scientists' hypothesis that species that perceive time at high resolution, tend to be smaller.
A dog can take in visual information – and see a light flashing – 25 per cent faster than a human – and while this makes it seem that time moves more slowly for canines, it is not enough to mean that one dog year equates to seven human years, they said.
The study demonstrates that a mouse sees the world and experiences time in a very different way to an elephant, for example.
The connection between the perception of time and a creature's body size and metabolism suggests that different nervous systems have evolved based upon a species' environment and how they survive in the wild.
This means, that while rapid perception might be incredibly useful to a bird, it would be a waste of animal for a larger and slower animal.
Put the internet to work for you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment