Many people feel that the depth of their inner thoughts and emotions exceeds what they can express in the moment. Elon Musk has publicly addressed this issue of communication limitation, which he refers to as the "bandwidth problem," during a discussion with Joe Rogan. Musk is so concerned by this that he aims to develop a device that allows for direct brain-computer communication, bypassing the slow methods of speech and typing.
However, Musk might find himself disappointed if his ambitions were realized. Recent findings in a study published in the journal Neuron suggest that human thought processes operate at a painfully slow rate of about 10 bits per second, whether it’s recalling memories, making decisions, or imagining scenarios. In stark contrast, human sensory systems can process data at the rate of one billion bits per second. This discrepancy, detailed in the study, likely fuels the misleading sensation that our minds can handle countless thoughts at once, a notion the researchers have named "the Musk illusion."
"The human brain is not as impressive as we might like to believe," stated Markus Meister, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology and co-author of the study. "It processes decisions very slowly, and it’s significantly slower than any gadget we use."
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Meister and Jieyu Zheng, a doctoral student in neurobiology at Caltech and co-author, emphasize that our brain can only manage one task slowly at a time. Thus, even if Musk were to connect his brain directly to a computer, he would not be able to communicate any faster than using conventional methods like a phone call.
Their research builds upon decades of psychological studies demonstrating that humans only perceive a tiny fraction of their sensory inputs. “We can focus on so little, and that’s what forms our conscious experience and what we remember,” Meister explained. The novelty of their study lies in its quantitative approach, lacking in previous research, according to Meister.
By compiling data from various fields such as psychology, neuroscience, technology, and human performance, Meister and Zheng ran numerous calculations to compare findings across studies. They discovered that human cognitive speed has consistently been recorded at about 5 to 20 bits per second, averaging around 10 bits per second. This revelation led them to estimate that the total information a human can learn in a lifetime could fit on a modestly sized thumb drive.
Human sensory systems, however, function at a rate approximately 100,000,000 times faster than our cognitive processes. “When you look at these figures, you realize the staggering gap,” said Meister. This paradox opens up new avenues for scientific research to potentially reorganize its approach.
The illusion of perceiving vast amounts of detail and variation is also a misconception, according to Meister. When asked to describe peripheral visions, people struggle to articulate what they see. “Our eyes can focus on any detail, giving us the illusion that we’re aware of everything simultaneously, but in reality, we can only focus on specific details at any given moment,” he added.
Another contributing factor to our inflated sense of mental capacity is the lack of a comparative marker. “We cannot step outside ourselves to see that there really isn’t much to boast about,” he pointed out.
The findings pose questions about evolution, technology, and comparisons across species. One area of curiosity for the researchers is why the prefrontal cortex, which is thought to control personality and behavior, contains billions of neurons but processes information at only 10 bits per second. They speculate this could be related to the brain’s need to switch tasks and integrate information from various circuits, but more complex behavioral studies are necessary to explore this theory.
Tony Zador, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who was acknowledged in the paper but not involved in the research, described the study as “wonderful and thought-provoking,” presenting what seems to be a newly recognized fundamental limit to the brain’s processing speed.
Nicole Rust, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania and also not involved in the study, suggested that the findings could significantly impact how neuroscientists approach their research. “Any theory of the brain that intends to explain our capabilities for planning and problem-solving will have to account for this paradox,” she noted.
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Cameron Aldridge combines a scientific mind with a knack for storytelling. Passionate about discoveries and breakthroughs, Cameron unravels complex scientific advancements in a way that’s both informative and entertaining.