Scientists at Caltech have discovered that the human brain processes information at a rate of just 10 bits per second, significantly slower than the billions of bits per second received by our sensory systems. This finding, published in Neuron, highlights the brain's remarkable ability to filter vast amounts of sensory input and focus on what's important, but also raises questions about the limitations of our cognitive abilities.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have uncovered a surprising truth about the speed of human thought: our brains process ideas at a rate of just 10 bits per second. Compared to the billion bits per second our sensory systems gather from the world around us, this is astonishingly slow. Led by Markus Meister and graduate student Jieyu Zheng, researchers used information theory to analyze behaviors such as reading, writing, and solving puzzles.
This new research could have lasting impacts on scientists' attempts to create brain-computer interfaces. This highlights a peculiar aspect of human cognition: we can process only one thought at a time, unlike our sensory systems, which operate in parallel. The researchers suggest that this limited speed of human thought may have evolutionary roots. Early creatures with nervous systems used their brains primarily for navigation—finding food and avoiding predators.
TECHNOLOGY BRAINS COGNITION EVOLUTION SENSORY SYSTEMS
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