How Fast Is Too Fast to See? Study Reveals Your Visual Speed Limit

When a camera whips around from one point to another, most people expect the fast movement to result in a blurry smear. What they don’t realize, however, is that our own eyes engage in a similar kind of rapid movement—called saccades—over 100,000 times a day. Unlike video cameras, our brain avoids the nauseating blur—but when things move in a particular way, they become invisible. As detailed in a study published May 8 in Nature Communications, researchers have revealed that the speed of an individual’s saccades corresponds to the limit at which a moving object becomes too fast for them to see. That means people with faster eye movements can perceive faster-moving objects, with potential implications for activities requiring fast eye movements such as sports, video games, and even photography. The researchers claim to be the first to provide evidence for the theory that a person’s movement impacts their perception. “What parts of the physical world we can sense depends fundamentally ... Read full article.