How Long Does It Really Take to Think a Thought?

As inquisitive being , we are constantly question and quantifying the speed of various things . With a fair level of accuracy , scientists have quantified the speed oflight , the focal ratio of phone , the fastness at which theearth revolves around the Sunday , the amphetamine at which hummingbirdsbeat their wing , the average speed ofcontinental drift … .

These values are all well - characterise . But what about the swiftness of idea ? It ’s a ambitious question that ’s not easily answerable – but we can give it a shot .

First, some thoughts on thought

To measure the upper of anything , one call for to identify its get-go and end . For our purposes , a “ cerebration ” will be define as the mental activities engaged from the consequence sensory selective information is received to the moment an action is initiate . This definition necessarily omit many experiences and process one might moot to be “ thoughts . ”

Here , a “ thought ” includes operation have-to doe with to perception ( determining what is in the environment and where ) , determination - making ( determining what to do ) and action - planning ( determine how to do it ) . The distinction between , and independence of , each of these processes is blurry . Further , each of these processes , and perhaps even their sub - components , could be considered “ persuasion ” on their own . But we have to set our start- and endpoints somewhere to have any hope of tackling the question .

Finally , essay to name one note value for the “ hurrying of thought ” is a small like attempt to identify one maximal speed for all forms of transportation , from bicycles to rockets . There are many unlike kinds of thoughts that can deviate greatly in timescale . look at the remainder between round-eyed , rapid reaction like the sprinter deciding to run after the crack of the starting handgun ( on the order of 150 msec [ ms ] ) , and more complex determination like deciding when to transfer lanes while drive on a main road or figuring out the appropriate scheme to work out a maths problem ( on the order of seconds to minutes ) .

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Thoughts are invisible, so what should we measure?

Thought is at last an national and very individualized process that ’s not pronto observable . It swear on interactions across complex meshing of neurons distribute throughout the peripheral and cardinal neural systems . researcher can use imaging technique , such asfunctional magnetic resonance imagingandelectroencephalography , to see what expanse of the nervous arrangement are fighting during different thought processes , and how entropy flow through the neural system . We ’re still a recollective way of life from dependably relating these signal to the genial events they represent , though .

Many scientist consider the best proxy measure of the speed or efficiency of thought processes to be response sentence – the time from the onset of a specific sign to the mo an activeness is lead up . Indeed , researchers concerned in assessing how fast information travels through the neural system have used reaction timesince the mid-1800s . This approach makes horse sense because thoughts are in the end evince through open actions . chemical reaction metre provide an indicator of how expeditiously someone receive and interprets receptive entropy , decides what to do based on that selective information , and plans and initiates an action based on that determination .

Neural factors involved

The time it takes for all thoughts to take place is ultimately shaped by the characteristics of the neuron and the networks involved . Many things influence the hurrying at which entropy flows through the system , but three cardinal factor are :

Distance – The farther signaling need to move , the longer the response time is going to be . Reaction fourth dimension for movements of the foot are longer than for drive of the hand , in large part because the signals traveling to and from the brain have a longer aloofness to get over . This principle is pronto establish through physiological reaction ( mark , however , that inborn reflex are responses that occur without “ thought ” because they do not involve neurons that engaged in conscious thought ) . The key observation for the present intention is that the samereflexes evoked in taller individualstend to have long response metre than for shorter individuals . By way of doctrine of analogy , if two messenger push to New York leave of absence at the same time and travel at on the button the same swiftness , a messenger result from Washington , DC will always come before one leaving from Los Angeles .

Neuron characteristics – The width of the nerve cell is of import . Signals are carried more quick in neurons with larger diameters than those that are narrow – a courier will more often than not travel quicker on wide multi - lane highway than on narrow nation roadstead . Nerve signal jump between the exposed country between myelin sheathes . Neuron mental image via www.shutterstock.comHow much myelination a neuron has is also important . Some boldness cells have myelin cells that wrap around the nerve cell to provide a character of insulation sheath . The myeline cocktail dress is n’t completely continuous along a nerve cell ; there are lowly gaps in which the face cubicle is exposed . Nerve signals effectively stick out from expose section to expose department or else of traveling the full extent of the neuronal open . So signal move much quicker in neuron that have myelin sheath than in neurons that do n’t . The message will get to New York sooner if it pass off from mobile phone tower to cellphone tower than if the messenger push back the subject matter along each and every inch of the road . In the human context , the signals hold by the large - diameter , myelinated neuron that link the spinal electric cord to the muscles can travel at speeds range from 70 - 120 miles per 2nd ( m / s ) ( 156 - 270 mile per hour[mph ] ) , while signaling traveling along the same track convey by the modest - diameter , unmyelinated fibers of the pain in the neck receptors travel at speeds range from 0.5 - 2 molar concentration / s ( 1.1 - 4.4 miles per hour ) . That ’s quite a difference !

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complexness – increase the act of neurons demand in a thought mean a capital sheer length the signal involve to travel – which necessarily means more time . The courier from Washington , DC will take less fourth dimension to get to New York with a direct route than if she travels to Chicago and Boston along the way . Further , more neurons mean more connection . Most neuron are not in physical contact with other neurons . Instead , most signals are passed via neurotransmitter mote that travel across the small space between the nerve cellular telephone called synapses . This process takes more time ( at least 0.5 ms per synapse ) than if the signal was continually pass within the exclusive neuron . The subject matter stock from Washington , DC will take less metre to get to New York if one exclusive courier does the whole route than if multiple couriers are involved , stopping and handing over the message several times along the agency . In accuracy , even the “ elementary ” thoughts need multiple structure and 100 of yard of neurons .

How quickly it can happen

It ’s amazing to consider that a given opinion can be generated and acted on in less than 150 ms . Consider the sprinter at a starting line . The reception and perception of the quip of the neophyte ’s gun , the decision to commence running , issuing of the movement commands , and sire muscle violence to start running involve a meshwork that begins in the inner auricle and travels through numerous social structure of the spooky system before reaching the muscles of the legs . All that can happenin literally half the meter of a blink of an eye .

Although the time to initiate a sprint start is passing myopic , a variety of factors can influence it . One is theloudness of the audile “ go ” sign . Although response sentence tends to decrease as the brashness of the “ go ” increases , there is likely a critical point in the range of 120 - 124 decibels where an additional decrement of approximately 18 ms can occur . That ’s because sounds this loud cangenerate the “ startle ” response and triggera pre - planned sprinting response .

investigator recollect this trip response emerges through activating of neural centersin the brain stem . These jump - evoke responses may be quicker because they postulate a comparatively short and less complex neural system – one that does not necessarily demand the signal to travel all the way up to the more complex structures of the cerebral pallium . A debate could be had here as to whether or not these spark off response are “ thoughts , ” because it can be oppugn whether or not a true decision to represent was made ; but the response metre difference of opinion of these response exemplify the effect of neural factors such as distance and complexity . Involuntary reflex action , too , need shorter and simpler circuitry and lean to take less time to execute than voluntary response .

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Perceptions of our thoughts and actions

Considering how quickly they do happen , it ’s short wonder we often feel our thoughts and actions are well-nigh instantaneous . But it twist out we ’re also poor justice of when our actions really occur .

Although we ’re aware of our thoughts and the resulting movements , aninteresting dissociationhas been observed between the time we think we initiate a movement and when thatmovement in reality start . In studies , researchers inquire voluntary to check a second bridge player rotate around a clock face and to complete a simple speedy finger or carpus apparent motion , such as a key jam , whenever they like . After the clock hand had completed its gyration , the people were ask to identify where the hand was on the clock face when they started their own movement .

Surprisingly , people typically judge the onset of their movement to come 75 - 100 meter prior to when it really began . This difference can not be accounted for simply by the time it takes for the bowel movement command to travel from the genius to the arm muscles ( which is on the ordering of 16 - 25 1000 ) . It ’s unreadable exactly why this misperception fall out , but it ’s in general believed that the great unwashed found their discernment of movement onset on the time of the decisiveness to act and the prediction of the upcoming movement , instead of on the trend itself . These and other findings raise important questions about the planning and dominance of action andour mother wit of authority and controlin the man – because our conclusion to act and our perception of when we act appear to be distinct from when we in fact do .

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In total , although measure a single “ speed of thought ” may never be possible , analyzing the time it take to be after and thoroughgoing actions leave important perceptiveness into how expeditiously the flighty organization completes these operation , and how change associated with movement and cognitive disorder affect the efficiency of these genial activities .

Tim Welshis Professor of Kinesiology and Physical Education atUniversity of Toronto .

This article was primitively published onThe Conversation . scan theoriginal article .

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