The brain shows us the world on a 15-second delay so we don’t go crazy

The human brain is designed to process information, but in fact it is frankly weak and very “lazy” – prone not to work, but to procrastination. Studying its work, American and British researchers came to the conclusion that evolution has given us a protective mechanism that allows us to perceive huge amounts of data about what is happening around us, but not to go crazy from overexertion. The secret is that the brain constantly sends us back in time – showing us what was happening 15 seconds ago.

Every second billions of photons enter our eyes, providing information about the size, shape, distance, and color of objects around us. The slightest shake of the head while walking immediately changes the picture, complicates it, and the world around us is also constantly moving. As a consequence, the brain constantly receives an inordinate amount of data only about what we see, not to mention the rest of the senses. And it is physically, due to biological limitations, unable to process all this information.

That is why the brain does not try to do it – as scientists have found, instead it summarizes the data and gives some average estimate for a period of about 15 seconds. This was confirmed experimentally when people observed and reported continuous changes in the image – all subjects recorded a lag of 15 seconds. It turns out that what we are actually seeing is not what is happening right now, but what happened in our immediate past.

This effect explains why people do not notice important little things, may pass by and not see an object lying in plain sight – it was static and the brain ignored it. Hence the delayed reaction to momentary events – many classic tricks are built on distraction. On the other hand, in martial arts, sports and a number of extreme activities, the ability to act on reflexes, on intuition, when one does not wait for the brain to process the incoming information, but acts in advance.