Our brains tend to predict the future, do you realize that?

The diligent brain works on predicting the future every day without us knowing.

Have you ever found yourself imagining a "conclusion" for things around you right from the moment the event is happening - this is the function of predicting the future of the brain, more specifically of feeling of awareness.

The magical functions of the brain are still a difficult problem for scientists.

Researchers have recently claimed that this human 'sensory eye' can bring about future images that occur at a faster rate than reality - a feature that compensates for finite of eyesight, ie the naked eye.

In fact, this predictability of the brain works regularly in our daily lives. The only thing that prevents this function is a rare disease called Aphantasia . This is a kind of disorder that makes people unable to imagine any images in their minds. Also known as 'unimaginable' pathology .

Specific experiments bring scientists and us closer to this predictive function of the human brain.

Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands have put 29 university students into a functional resonance imaging scanner (fMRI) to map brain activity when they see a white dot passing through the screen.

'Unimaginable' disease can prevent this predictive function of the brain.

Participants in the experiment were asked to watch the same animated film 108 times in a short time. Eventually, their brains produced images that accurately predicted the next movement of dots on the screen.

At the end of the first experiment, when the participants' brains already had precedents, they were able to watch the video of random movements of 24 dots. These movements include a number of white dots moving across the screen like the first experiment, others only appear at the beginning or the end, plus a few 'random dots' tests at The last step in the motion sequence. The entire experiment was conducted twice with each student, while the other four volunteers played a controlling role to eliminate other effects among the experiments.

A series of fMRI scans have been performed with their brains at extremely fast speeds to capture blood flow in certain tissues. When the volunteers tracked the jumping dots, the corresponding part of their visual cortex lights up corresponding to each step. When scientists show them the dots at the beginning, the sensory part in their brains is immediately activated, the brain automatically produces images that predict the complete sequence. motion of dots. Surprisingly, the speed of these predictions happens twice as fast as the actual dot speed.

The charts below help you better understand this magical function of the brain:

The results of the fMRI scan show that the predicted speed of the brain is twice as fast as the actual occurrence of the event.

However, this does not show a specific figure for the brain's predicted speed, because the fMRI scanner can only scan fast images at a certain speed, even extremely fast. But it suggests that we have a way to quickly predict relatively simple movements. For example, when a ball is on our way, when the ball is halfway up, the brain has produced pre-projected images of us being "eaten" in the head. !

Previous studies have estimated that it is necessary to look at an image for at least 150 milliseconds so that our brain is able to capture enough information to make a decision about whether to focus on detail in the image. . Then a study a few years ago showed that we could actually finish processing this information faster - in just 13 milliseconds. However, this quick processing can lead to more energy consumption.

This means we are living a tenth of a second ahead of the present . And in life, sometimes this short period of time is enough to make the boundary difference between life and death.

In the future, these predictive long-term research studies can be carried out, saving people time and effort in everyday life.

Sharing with MailOnline, leading researcher Matthias Ekman hypothesized: "Imagine you are crossing the street, a car is approaching and you need to decide whether you should cross, or wait for the car to go. The study shows that the brain's predictive visual system can quickly determine the vehicle's trajectory and thus help people make decisions whether to cross the street or should wait. ".

This study questions the role of our visual cortex not only in the perception of current events, but also in the use of past experiences to build awareness of events in future.

The researchers write in their report: "Therefore, the concept of predictive imagery in the visual system blurs the line between memory and perception, and emphasizes the integration of these two cognitive faculties. '.

Not only does it stop at predicting the future (even for a tenth of a second), the brain also has infinite possibilities that science has yet to explain. If you have ever experienced the illusion of the timeline almost standing still , this is even more strongly confirmed. And it seems that the discovery of secrets is not far from the function of what is in our heads here, you will still have to know how many papers of researchers!

This research has been published in Nature Communications.