Smaller animals tend to perceive time as if it is passing in slow motion, a new study has shown.

This means that they can observe movement on a finer timescale than bigger creatures, allowing them to escape from larger predators.

Insects and small birds, for example, can see more information in one second than a larger animal such as an elephant.

The work is published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

"The ability to perceive time on very small scales may be the difference between life and death for fast-moving organisms such as predators and their prey," said lead author Kevin Healy, at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland.

The reverse was found in bigger animals, which may miss things that smaller creatures can rapidly spot.
Speedy goalkeeper
In humans, too, there is variation among individuals. Athletes, for example, can often process visual information more quickly. An experienced goalkeeper would therefore be quicker than others in observing where a ball comes from.

The speed at which humans absorb visual information is also age-related, said Andrew Jackson, a co-author of the work at TCD.

"Younger people can react more quickly than older people, and this ability falls off further with increasing age."

The team looked at the variation of time perception across a variety of animals. They gathered datasets from other teams who had used a technique called critical flicker fusion frequency, which measures the speed at which the eye can process light.

Plotting these results on a graph revealed a pattern that showed a strong relationship between body size and how quick the eye could respond to changing visual information such as a flashing light.

"From a human perspective, our ability to process visual information limits our ability to drive cars or fly planes any faster than we currently do in Formula 1, where these guys are pushing the limits of what is humanly possible," Dr Jackson told BBC News.

"Therefore, to go any quicker would require either computer assistance, or enhancement of our visual system, either through drugs or ultimately implants."

Confused woodlice
The current study focused on vertebrates, but the team also found that several fly species have eyes that react to stimulus more than four times quicker than the human eye.

But some deep-sea isopods (a type of marine woodlouse) have the slowest recorded reaction of all, and can only see a light turning off and on four times per second "before they get confused and see it as being constantly on", Dr Jackson explained.

"We are beginning to understand that there is a whole world of detail out there that only some animals can perceive and it's fascinating to think of how they might perceive the world differently to us," he added.

Graeme Ruxton, of the University of St Andrews, Scotland, another co-author, said: "Having eyes that send updates to the brain at much higher frequencies than our eyes do is of no value if the brain cannot process that information equally quickly.

"Hence, this work highlights the impressive capabilities of even the smallest animal brains. Flies might not be deep thinkers but they can make good decisions very quickly."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24078179

bump for order

This is strangely interesting. I always knew that everyone perceived things differently and all, but knowing that there is variation between not only between individuals but entire species is really cool.

Bump because this is really cool.

I'd be excited to see what modern science could do with this kind of information.

this is really interesting :o I did not know that, and I would love to learn more about it :)care to post the source?

I would like to see the same test again but with all of the animals on acid.

I never understood how an animal who see's things in slow motion could actually get away easier. If they saw things slower it means the predator is that much closer to the animal by the time they notice them and by the time they realize to run away.

How exactly could such a thing HELP them escape?

>>7 No, their world effectively moves at a different pace. It's not like they're watching a slow-motion playback - everything around them moves accordingly. The way we experience time and the way they experience time is very different.

I think it's oretty hard for us to comprehend without studying it excessively. Personally, I don't really get it but I imagine it might be like in Final Cut Pro or whatnot. When you have the bar down the bottom, you can either dilute it to a larger scale, thus seeing a bigger picture with less details to notice, or you can keep it small so that you can see more specific, minute details, but you see it on a smaller scale, also making the video seem longer when looking at it. I think that might also be why we see flies as only living for two weeks, but their perspective of a lifespan is completely different.

>>8
That isn't how 'reality' works. Just because they experience it different doesn't mean their perception changes time for them. Slow motion is just that. It makes absolutely no sense as to how they can get away if they perceive everything slower.

It doesn't magically make the predictor they see actually move slower.

>>10 I said it's how they perceive it. The predator is moving at the same pace, but because the prey interprets it's surroundings far faster, it seems slower (to us and the predator) due to the way they process things. And the prey can move fast enough to get away - because it's world moves accordingly. Everything is consistent - the way we measure it is what's not.
Also, it's not about perceiving slower. It's about absorbing more information in a short period of time - which makes it feel like it's being drawn out. Like focusing on particular frames of a video, you are able to interpret what's going on differently because you can take in more information on something that's moving quickly.
Remember, it said "Insects and small birds, for example, can see more information in one second than a larger animal such as an elephant". Because they process the more information, life seems slower to them. They have more time to analyse the movement of a predator because their brain is moving at a different pace.

Oop, not how they perceive it, how we perceive it.

>>10 If you have ever traveled at 0.95c, you will be convinced everyone around you is going much faster, while you are not, while everyone around you will be convinced you will be going much slower, while they are not. You literally perceive yourself as going much slower than everyone else, and this is scientifically/mathematically proven.

Obviously the chipmunks aren't moving at 95% the speed of light, but my point is this kind of time difference happens in nature.

Bump for knowledge