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Tall people live in the past.

backstept

backstept

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104183551

For Tall People, 'Now' Is Really The Past

Because for the taller person it takes a tenth of a second longer for the toe-touch to travel up the foot, the ankle, the calf, the thigh, the backbone to the brain, the brain waits that extra beat to announce a "NOW!" That tall person will live his sensory life on a teeny delay (at least as regards toe-touching). This, of course, could apply to all kinds of lower-extremity experiences — cold or heat against the skin, tickles, rubs, hitting a soccer ball — the list goes on and on.
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I think this is fascinating
it reminds me of time dilation studies involving bungee jumpers and the perception of the passage of time
they would have people visualize and time their recent jump, and without fail they would remember the jump being longer than it actually was
 
Well everybody technically is living in the past when you consider sensory data even from your eyes, and ears, and nose, and tongue have to travel a small distance to reach the the brain. When you consider that a nerve impulse travels around 260 mph... yeah there's some time lag. It's very miniscule though.

Here's a good question for all (I know the answer): How come tall people still can have very good reflex times even though their bodies are longer and the nerve signal takes longer to reach the brain?
 
There's also the concept of the "user illusion" which hypothesizes your consciousness lags about half a second behind your senses. The interesting part of this is that, within that half-second, your brain has already decided how it wants to respond to the information it has gathered. Your consciousness is essentially a gatekeeper--it will allow the response to happen, or veto it.

I suppose this means tall people have an even longer lag in their user illusion, too.

Should you ever find yourself wondering how much your brain filters your senses and perception, try some of the exercises that let you locate your blind spot. Pretty fucked up how your brain fills in the blanks, isn't it? Just think what else your brain may be hiding from your consciousness.
 
CuttingEdge100 said:
Here's a good question for all (I know the answer): How come tall people still can have very good reflex times even though their bodies are longer and the nerve signal takes longer to reach the brain?
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our brains are excellent at anticipation
ever walk into a room and immediately notice something different (a chair or something else moved etc) or walk up or down a flight of stairs and expect there to be another step and stumble when there isn't? or even flinching as someone pretends to hit you with something

we subconsciously remember how things were and notice the change, we anticipate the next step and our balance is thrown off when there's no step to land on, and we anticipate the impact and move to protect ourselves even before we realize that it was just a fakeout

Robert Maxwell said:
There's also the concept of the "user illusion" which hypothesizes your consciousness lags about half a second behind your senses. The interesting part of this is that, within that half-second, your brain has already decided how it wants to respond to the information it has gathered. Your consciousness is essentially a gatekeeper--it will allow the response to happen, or veto it.

I suppose this means tall people have an even longer lag in their user illusion, too.

Should you ever find yourself wondering how much your brain filters your senses and perception, try some of the exercises that let you locate your blind spot. Pretty fucked up how your brain fills in the blanks, isn't it? Just think what else your brain may be hiding from your consciousness.
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I'm sure the time difference between a short and tall person is negligible

this is fun: straighten your arm and pinch the skin right on your elbow where you feel the bone or better yet have someone else do it as hard as they can . . . no pain :D
of course it's not totally pain free, but very little sensetivity to it

also another trick is to hold two pencils together and touch the points to the back of your hand and you should feel 2, but touch them to the back of your neck and you'll only feel 1
 
Another factoid. When you're standing up, your feet are aging less rapidly than your head due to differential time dilation in a gravitational field gradient -- also known as gravitational red shift. The heads of tall people standing up are aging faster than the heads of shorter people who are standing next to them (unless they stand on a box, of course).
 
I actually have a numb spot on my chin from a jaw surgery I had some years ago. I always use it as a party trick--go ahead, pinch my chin as hard as you can! No pain!
 
I don't know if your consciousness lags quite a half a second behind your senses, I would say it's a smaller fraction of a second than that...
 
It probably varies based on multiple factors, however, there are some things that never enter conscious processing. Being suddenly frightened is probably a good example--someone sneaks up on you and makes a loud noise. Your whole body jumps. You didn't consciously tell your body to do this. Your brain responded immediately, putting you in a defensive mode. By the time the situation is under your control, you've already had adrenaline dumped into your blood stream, muscles are tense, and you're ready to react more deliberately.

There are essentially a lot of responses that are automatic, while not being reflexes. Most reflexes only originate as far afield as the spinal column, never actually hitting the brain. But there are situations where your brain will cause your body to act, without any conscious intervention whatsoever--or even the opportunity for such.

All of this indicates at least a noticeable lag between an external stimulus and your conscious ability to perceive and respond to it.
 
backstept said:
this is fun: straighten your arm and pinch the skin right on your elbow where you feel the bone or better yet have someone else do it as hard as they can . . . no pain :D
of course it's not totally pain free, but very little sensetivity to it

also another trick is to hold two pencils together and touch the points to the back of your hand and you should feel 2, but touch them to the back of your neck and you'll only feel 1
Click to expand...

These two are really more down to sensory nerve density then anything else. The resolution, as it were, on the back of your neck just isn't high enough to pick out two pressure points that close together. Take a look at the guy on the left, that's how your brain sees your body proportionally via sensory and processing resolution. So it's not so much hiding things from you as it is trying to figure out what's going on with very little info!
 
The important thing to remember about reflex/reaction studies is that they try to determine what is what based on everything else being the same. If a taller person reacts faster than a shorter person, even if this study says the opposite should happen, it is most likely because the taller person has an advantage in something else compared to the shorter person.
 
Arrghman said:
backstept said:
this is fun: straighten your arm and pinch the skin right on your elbow where you feel the bone or better yet have someone else do it as hard as they can . . . no pain :D
of course it's not totally pain free, but very little sensetivity to it

also another trick is to hold two pencils together and touch the points to the back of your hand and you should feel 2, but touch them to the back of your neck and you'll only feel 1
Click to expand...

These two are really more down to sensory nerve density then anything else. The resolution, as it were, on the back of your neck just isn't high enough to pick out two pressure points that close together. Take a look at the guy on the left, that's how your brain sees your body proportionally via sensory and processing resolution. So it's not so much hiding things from you as it is trying to figure out what's going on with very little info!
Click to expand...
the link goes to nothing :(
 
backstept said:
Arrghman said:
backstept said:
this is fun: straighten your arm and pinch the skin right on your elbow where you feel the bone or better yet have someone else do it as hard as they can . . . no pain :D
of course it's not totally pain free, but very little sensetivity to it

also another trick is to hold two pencils together and touch the points to the back of your hand and you should feel 2, but touch them to the back of your neck and you'll only feel 1
Click to expand...

These two are really more down to sensory nerve density then anything else. The resolution, as it were, on the back of your neck just isn't high enough to pick out two pressure points that close together. Take a look at the guy on the left, that's how your brain sees your body proportionally via sensory and processing resolution. So it's not so much hiding things from you as it is trying to figure out what's going on with very little info!
Click to expand...
the link goes to nothing :(
Click to expand...

Hmm, must have been removed for some reason... the same image is here
 
Here's a thought that this little time lag may be an advantage.....

Say a tall person is in a fight. During this fight he gets hist foot stomped on which cracks the bone... this tall person could use this little time lag to break his opponents jaw before he himself has to double over in pain...... whereas a shorter person would double over sooner. of couse the little time lag is negligible but still just a thought.
 
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