Research reveals which animals perceive time the fastest

New research shows that the animals with the fastest perception time are smaller, flightable animals, or marine carnivores
.

These preliminary results will be presented
by Dr Kevin Healy of the University of Galway at the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society in Edinburgh on Tuesday 20 December.

The study, the largest of its kind to date, analyzed the speed at which more than 100 animals perceive changes in the world, known as temporal perception
.
The researchers found that animals with a fast pace of life had visual systems that detected changes
more quickly.

Species like blowflies and dragonflies are able to detect changes at the highest speeds, and their vision can process 300Hz (300 changes per second), significantly faster than the 65Hz of humans
.
Among vertebrates, the fastest eye belongs to the piebald fly, which can see 146Hz
.
The frequency of Salmon is 96 Hz and the frequency of Dogs is 75 Hz
.
The slowest eye is the crown of thorns starfish, only 0.
7 Hz
.

"Having rapid vision helps a species perceive rapid changes in its environment
.
This detailed perception of changes is useful
if you move quickly or need to pinpoint the trajectory of your prey's movement.
Dr.
Kevin Healy
explains.

"By looking at such a wide range of animals, from dragonflies to starfish, our findings suggest that a species' perception of time itself is related to
the speed of environmental change.
" This could help us understand that aspects such as predator-prey interactions and even light pollution affect some species more
than others.
”

An unexpected finding in the study was that many terrestrial predators had relatively slow
time perception compared to aquatic predators.
Dr Kevin Healy said: "We think this difference may be due to the fact that in aquatic environments, predators can constantly adjust their position when pounce on their prey, while in terrestrial environments, predators pounce on their prey, such as jumping spiders, and once they are activated, they cannot make adjustments
.
"

Not all animals have a fast sense of time, as it consumes energy and is limited by the rate
at which neurons connected to the retinal cells of the eye are charged.
Animals that do not need fast vision use this energy for other needs, such as growth or reproduction
.

Differences in time perception also occur between species, including humans
.
Some studies have shown that in soccer, goalkeepers see changes faster, while coffee can temporarily improve this change
.

The analysis in this study used data collected from a number of studies that measured time perception
using scintillation light experiments.
Each experiment used a special device called electroretinogram to record the rate at which the optic nerve sends information when the light flickered, which in turn measured how quickly the animal could detect the rate at which the light flickered
.
This is known as the critical flicker fusion frequency
.

Dr Kevin Healy will present this work
at the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society.
This work has not yet been published
.
The conference will bring together more than 1,200 ecologists to discuss the latest breakthroughs
in ecology.