No matter how great the human mind is, there are still limitations that limit the brain’s potential. The most puzzling example of our mental shortcomings has to do with the way we think. Despite our brains boasting billions of neurons that dictate our every move, our thought processes are surprisingly limited, and scientists are finding answers to explain the mystery of human inefficiency. It may happen.
New research recently published in journals neuron We quantified the speed of human thinking and demonstrated abnormalities in brain power. of study The study was conducted at the California Institute of Technology, where Markus Meister, a professor in the biological sciences lab, and his colleagues investigated neuron circuits, the interconnected networks that communicate with each other and facilitate the functioning of the body and mind. We are studying a group of neurons.
the limits behind our thinking
In this study, graduate student Jieyu Zheng examines the scientific literature on human behavior, from reading and writing to solving Rubik’s cubes, and parlays this analysis into information theory (how information is processed, stored, and transmitted). combined with knowledge of mathematics (with a focus on mathematics).
This study revealed that humans think at an average speed. 10 bits/sec. But what’s interesting about this speed is that the individual neurons in our brains (more than 85 billion in total) are technologically powerful enough to process information much faster than 10 bits per second. That’s true. But researchers have discovered that the brain limits the speed at which thoughts can be processed.
According to researchers, the speed of thought processing is much slower than our body’s sensory system, which works 100 million times faster. The gulf between human thought and sensory processing speeds raises many questions for neuroscientists.
Our sensory systems process thousands of inputs simultaneously, but we can’t have more than one thought running through our heads at any given moment. But why is this?
read more: How our brains organize abstract scientific concepts
How our slow thinking evolved
This research suggests that our brains have come to function this way through evolution. The first animals to develop nervous systems probably used their brains to navigate, moving towards food and away from predators, during the Ediacaran period, 635 to 543 million years ago. You can These behaviors are consistent with the idea that humans simply need to take one path or stick to one idea at a time.
It may seem counterintuitive, but our slower thinking speed may simply be because our ancestors had enough to survive. A thought processing speed of 10 bits per second has been suitable for decision-making for centuries because the environment around us often changes at a fairly slow pace.
Can humans multitask?
Humans are not the masters of multitasking that we often think. as one 2019 survey In other words, the brain does not contain the neural “building blocks” to handle multiple tasks at the same time. Instead, the brain quickly switches between the two tasks rather than actively performing the two at the same time.
The brain can prepare before transitioning from one task to another and predict when the switch will occur. Task switching also varies with task intensity. For example, something that requires a lot of concentration will make a person less ready to switch tasks.
To switch tasks, related costs This slows down your work and takes more time to complete tasks. some experiment It has been proven that humans slow down when they have to switch between multiple tasks. So, while it may seem like a great strategy, multitasking usually has a negative impact on performance.
read more: What happens in your brain when you create memories?
brain computer problem
Zheng and Meister’s research casts doubt on the ambitious technological concepts that proposed a brain-computer connection. Implantable brain-computer interfaces may not necessarily speed up the brain’s communication speed, according to a new study, because humans have limited thought-processing speeds.
But looking forward, researchers are interested in looking deeper into how the brain works to understand why we can’t process multiple thoughts at once.
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Jack Knudson is an associate editor at Discover and has a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, she studied journalism at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
