Ready, steady, slow! Why top sportsmen might have 'more time' on the ball

September 7, 2012 in Neuroscience

Ready, steady, slow! Why top sportsmen might have 'more time' on the ball

Enlarge

A baseball player preparing to strike the ball, from Pierre-Olivier on Flickr

(Medical Xpress)—Professional ball game players report the sensation of the ball 'slowing-down' just before they hit it. Confirming these anecdotal comments, a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that time is perceived to slow down during the period of action preparation, as the result of an increased intake of visual information.

The researchers, from UCL's Institute of , suggest that this might help the player to adapt their planned movement in response to last-minute changes in the game around them.

Precise movements are often accompanied by less sensory awareness, and thus any previous report of the illusion of time slowing down has been associated with the senses overcompensating for this. Here, scientists show for the first time, that time is perceived to slow during the preparation (rather than execution) of a rapid reaching movement involving increased sensory processing.

The researchers asked 56 participants to touch a screen or press a button dependent on specific . They then had to indicate whether the cue symbol had been displayed for a short or long time (they had received training as to which lengths of time, in control situations, were considered short or long). The experimenters found that the symbols people saw while preparing to move, were perceived to be prolonged, relative to a control condition without movement.

Preparing to reach for the screen increased perceived duration of a . This effect was tightly linked to preparing for action, because time appeared to slow down even more when people were given more instructions about their upcoming movement.

Moreover, participants were able to process the information given by the symbols more quickly, resulting in higher detection rate of rapidly presented symbols. These findings indicate that visual processing during action preparation is accelerated, with direct effects on perception of time.

Dr Nobuhiro Hagura, who led the UCL team, said: "Our experiments showed that the more people prepare for an action, the more dramatically time seems to slow down for them just before they actually begin the action.

"This expansion of time may boost visual parts of the brain, by allowing more processing cycles, generating more information about the situation.

"In a game like tennis or baseball you have to coordinate your actions with quick and unpredictable changes in the flight of the ball. Our brain is tuned for action; when you know you are getting ready to hit the ball it seems that your brain gives you a bit more time to analyse the visual world."

More information: rspb.royalsocietyp… ull.pdf+html

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B search and more info website

Provided by University College London search and more info website

4 /5 (3 votes)  

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

Argiod
Sep 07, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
As a martial artist, I can tell you that in a combat situation, a master martial artist will also experience this 'temporal dilation' effect, where time seems to slow down. I think the effect is due to the release of chemicals that make our brain work faster, thus making it seem as though the world has slowed.
jimbo92107
Sep 07, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
Come on guys, you mean you don't know how to slow down time? I've been teaching it for years. It's a perception trick where you learn to predict where an object will be from the earliest signs, then begin to move towards that point (or away from it) as soon as possible. It involves conserving leverage, like the ready position in tennis. It involves conserving momentum by staying on balance without planting your feet. It involves synchronizing your movements to your opponent or partner. It is the dance of danger, mon ami.
gwrede
Sep 10, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
Our experiments showed that the more people prepare for an action, the more dramatically time seems to slow down for them just before they actually begin the action.
Then I'd better tell my kids to prepare for the homework.

This phenomenon might also explain why light weight boxing is so hard to watch. By the time you see one punch, they have already exchanged a few more.
Rank 4 /5 (3 votes)
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

New neuron formation could increase capacity for new learning, at the expense of old memories

New research presented today shows that formation of new neurons in the hippocampus - a brain region known for its importance in learning and remembering - could cause forgetting of old memories by causing a reorganization ...

Neuroscience created May 24, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Help at hand for people with schizophrenia

How can healthy people who hear voices help schizophrenics? Finding the answer for this is at the centre of research conducted at the University of Bergen.

Neuroscience created May 24, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Japanese research organizations contribute to Human Brain Project

One of the major frontiers of modern science is a comprehensive understanding of the human brain and its functions to guide the development of new technologies in information and communication. In a major announcement for ...

Neuroscience created May 24, 2013 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Controlling mood through the motions of mitochondria

(Medical Xpress)—Regulating the distribution of power in neurons is done by a system that makes the national electric grid look simple by comparison. Each neuron has several thousand mitochondria confined ...

Neuroscience created May 23, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Brain uses internal 'average voice' prototype to identify who is talking

(Medical Xpress)—The human brain is able to identify individuals' voices by comparing them against an internal 'average voice' prototype, according to neuroscientists.

Neuroscience created May 23, 2013 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast


First drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade

Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by half, according to the results of a multicentre randomised double blind trial presented today at Heart Failure 2013 congress. It is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality ...

Heart failure accelerates male 'menopause'

Heart failure accelerates the aging process and brings on early andropausal syndrome (AS), according to research presented today at the Heart Failure Congress 2013. AS, also referred to as male 'menopause', was four times ...

Seniors more likely to crash when driving with pet, study finds

(HealthDay)—Animals make great companions for senior citizens, but elderly people who always drive with a pet in the car are far more likely to crash than those who never drive with a pet, researchers have ...

New immune system discovered

(Medical Xpress)—A research team, led by Jeremy Barr, a biology post-doctoral fellow, unveils a new immune system that protects humans and animals from infection.

Brain can be trained in compassion, study shows

Until now, little was scientifically known about the human potential to cultivate compassion—the emotional state of caring for people who are suffering in a way that motivates altruistic behavior.

Death highest in heart failure patients admitted in January, on Friday, and overnight

Mortality and length of stay are highest in heart failure patients admitted in January, on Friday, and overnight, according to research presented today at the Heart Failure Congress 2013. The analysis of nearly 1 million ...