BBC:
Peoples' perception of time seems to slow as they prepare to
make a move. Researchers at University College London's
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience came to that conclusion
after studying test subjects who were asked to react to
flashing and flickering disks on a screen. The researchers
found that time was perceived as passing more slowly by those
who were asked to perform an action when they noticed a change
than by those who were asked to watch for changes but were not
asked to make any move. "Our guess is that during the motor
preparation, visual information processing in the brain is
enhanced. So, maybe, the amount of information coming in is
increased," wrote Nobuhiro Hagura, one of the authors of
the
study, published today in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences. Hagura noted that the additional information
processing may cause time to be perceived as longer and slower.
If so, it would explain elite sports stars' seemingly increased
capacity to make critical split-second decisions that make the
difference between winning and losing.
