
While these strategies are not the only ones the brain uses to highlight moving objects - attention is another factor, for instance - previous research from Tadin's lab found a link between IQ and an ability to suppress background motion. It is more effective to find a way to turn off the noise than it is to just try speaking more loudly." "Think about trying to have a conversation in a room with high background noise. The latter is "the more efficient option," Tadin says. It can enhance the objects that matter or, it can suppress the background, and, by virtue of this suppression, enhance the objects. There are two basic ways the brain can distinguish such objects from moving backgrounds.
#MOVING BACKGROUNDS DRIVER#
As the background scenery whizzes by, it is imperative that a driver see and avoid cars, pedestrians, and other objects on the road. "Being less sensitive to things that are less important makes the brain more efficient and faster at accomplishing the more important tasks." "The human brain cannot possibly process all of the information around us," says Duje Tadin, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at Rochester and the lead author of the study. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, could lead to new training programs for elderly adults and patients with conditions such as schizophrenia, which has been linked to weaker motion segregation. Conversely, when a person's brain is more sensitive to background motion, the negative trade-off is that she will be less sensitive to smaller foreground objects. While the process of separating an object from a background is seemingly effortless, researchers don't know how our visual system manages to rapidly pick out and segregate moving objects from their backgrounds.Īccording to new research from scientists at the University of Rochester, one reason human beings are good at discerning smaller moving objects in the foreground is that the brain becomes desensitized to the motion in the larger background. A friend you're trying to spot in a crowded airport terminal is more distinguishable once she begins waving her hands. A spider camouflaged against a branch, for instance, immediately loses its invisibility once it starts moving.
