A new study reveals the brain's speed limit for processing information, finding it to be a surprisingly low 10 bits per second, compared to the billions taken in by the nervous system.
The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe. Engaging articles, amazing illustrations & exclusive interviews— the network of nerves that deliver information between the brain and the body — takes in environmental information at over a billion bits per second, a speed comparable to a lightning-fast internet connection. But people think and process that information at just 10 bits per second, researchers report in the study.
'That number is ridiculously small compared with any information rate we encounter in daily life,' the researchers wrote in the study, published Dec. 17 in the journal. 'For example, we get anxious when the speed of the home WiFi network drops below 100 megabits per second because that might compromise our enjoyment of Netflix shows. Meanwhile, even if we stay awake during the show, our brain will never extract more than 10 bits per second of that giant bitstream. ' of Caltech determined this speed limit by calculating the number of bits required to perform a task, such as solving a Rubik's Cube or memorizing the order of a deck of cards, and dividing it by the time it took to perform each task. For record-holding memory experts who can finish those tasks in seconds, the rate at which they processed information was roughly 10 bits per second. filter out all of the extra information taken in by the nervous system. A single neuron can fire fast enough to transmit information at 10 bits per second. 'That one single neuron can perform as well as a monkey,' Zheng told Live Science. 'You just need one neuron to encode a yes or no decision, and that is enough for you to output that behavior. So why do we need billions of neurons to do this while we still output at 10 bits per second?' Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors The study also proposes an explanation for why humans can't follow multiple trains of thought at once, like listening to several simultaneous conversations at a party. Evolutionary history may be responsible for this single-minded focus, the researchers proposed. The first nervous systems in early animals were only responsible for guiding an organism toward food or away from danger, so they needed to make only one decision at a time: which direction to move. More abstract thought follows similar'paths' and may have inherited the constraint of processing just one path at a time, the study authors suggested.The team proposed that the brain operates in two simultaneous modes: an'outer brain' that takes in millions of bits of data and an'inner brain' that focuses on one small portion of that data at a time. To determine how the outer and inner brain communicate with each other, researchers will have to study individuals' brains while they perform complex tasks, such as driving a car, that require people to frequently shift their attention to different aspects of the task, Zheng said. 'How does do task control?' Zheng said. 'How does it choose which 10 bits per second we are paying attention to? We are really hoping that people can go deeper into this.' Skyler Ware is a freelance science journalist covering chemistry, biology, paleontology and Earth science. She was a 2023 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow at Science News. Her work has also appeared in Science News Explores, ZME Science and Chembites, among others. Skyler has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech
BRAINS NEUROSCIENCE INFORMATION PROCESSING SENSORY INPUT EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
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