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  • Here's how this video feels to a fly.

  • (SPEAKING VERY SLOWLY) Welcome to D News.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Anthony here for D News.

  • And you know I'm all about how animals see the world.

  • In a previous video, we talked about how

  • they see colors and magnetic fields

  • and all kinds of insane stuff.

  • But now a new study in animal behavior shows some of them

  • also see things in matrix bullet time-- whoa.

  • The team measured a whole bunch of animals and their reaction

  • times based on something called critical flicker fusion

  • frequency, basically how their body responds

  • to things like flashing lights.

  • And it turns out, the processing of information

  • is tied to an animal's size and metabolic rate.

  • You know how hard it is to swat a fly?

  • That's because they take in seven times more

  • visual and audio information per second than we do.

  • The same goes for insects and small birds.

  • Dogs take in information at twice the speed we do.

  • That's why you can't get your dog into TV or a Skype video.

  • It's just seeing this weirdly flickering screen.

  • Reaction time is the difference between life and death

  • in the wild, especially for small animals

  • that are prey for just about everything.

  • So their ability to take in information quickly

  • is essential for their survival.

  • And you know how humans process information is interesting.

  • We can only take in so much at a time, but we can change it,

  • or rather, our bodies can, situationally.

  • If you ever felt like time's slowed down

  • before a car accident or a particularly

  • dangerous situation, that's your body

  • flipping your brain into overdrive,

  • so you have more ability to react.

  • Our ability to process information

  • can also be changed by age and training.

  • Athletes have a tendency to be able to take

  • in more information while playing their particular sport,

  • meaning time seems just a tiny bit slower to them

  • during a game.

  • And as we get older, our ability to process and take

  • in information slows down, meaning

  • time seems like it's slightly faster than we were younger.

  • In case you're wondering, besides flies,

  • squirrels and pigeons seem to take

  • in the most information at once.

  • The slowest animals were the European eel, the leatherback

  • turtle, and the black nose shark.

  • And interestingly, only one animal's speed

  • doesn't match its perception.

  • The tiger beetle runs too fast to keep up with its own vision.

  • It has to stop, wait a second, and then run again.

  • It is like living in a permanently buffering YouTube

  • video.

  • We've all been there.

  • Am I right?

  • If you want to know more about animal vision or any

  • of their other crazy abilities, we

  • have tons of videos about them in the links below.

  • And subscribe for more D News.

Here's how this video feels to a fly.

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