Caltech researchers have calculated that humans process information at a rate of 10 bits per second, significantly slower than our sensory systems which gather data at a billion bits per second. This finding raises several questions for neuroscientists, including why we can think one thing at a time while processing thousands of inputs simultaneously.
The study, led by graduate student Jieyu Zheng and conducted in the laboratory of Markus Meister, used information theory to analyze human behaviors such as reading, writing, gaming, and solving puzzles. The team found that humans extract only 10 bits of information from the trillion bits our senses take in each moment.
This “speed limit” in the brain has puzzled experts, with one third of the brain’s neurons dedicated to high-level thinking and capable of transmitting more than 10 bits per second. However, why don’t they? The study suggests that future research should consider this paradox.
Another conundrum is why our brains process thoughts sequentially rather than in parallel like sensory systems do. The researchers propose that this may be due to the brain’s evolutionary history, with early creatures using their brains primarily for navigation and survival.
The new study challenges science-fiction ideas about creating direct interfaces between human brains and computers, suggesting that our brains would communicate at the same slow pace as our thoughts.
Source: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/thinking-slowly-the-paradoxical-slowness-of-human-behavior