CONNECTING OUR EYES, BRAIN, AND BODY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
Incredibly Fast Decision-Making In Sports — How Do Athletes Do It?
Part Three: Our visual system (and decisions) may be as fast as the speed of light!
In this section, we’ll discuss how vision has a quantum component and how rapid decisions in sports may actually take place. We’ll suggest that in addition to a highly efficient physical brain system, there may be an added performance boost due to the potential effects of unconscious decisions and the quantum properties in the brain.
Quantum Entanglement And Human Vision
About a decade ago, scientists created an experiment demonstrating that the human visual system could see quantum entanglement. Recall that quantum entanglement is the strange link that allows two quantum particles, in this case, photons, to be connected such that their properties remain intertwined despite not being physically connected and being separated by a great distance.
Remember that the primary role of the eyes, and the visual system, is to be a detector of photons. Photons are small elemental particles of electromagnetic radiation that are the most basic form of light. They share similar characteristics, on the atomic level, with electrons, protons, and neutrons including the feature that they behave as both particles as well as waves simultaneously.
In designing their experiment, the scientists ran into an immediate problem. The human rods (black and white receptor cells in the retina) aren’t able to detect a single photon. In general, the retina needs 7 photons to strike before it sends a signal to the brain. Additionally, about 90% of all incoming photons are scattered, or lost due, to their need to pass through the gelatinous vitreous fluid before reaching the retina.
The researchers cleverly devised a system where they created two entangled photons. By taking one of these photons and “cloning” it, they were able to create a sufficient number of photons for retinal detection — while maintaining the overall entanglement.
Upon completing the experiment, they concluded that the human eye could detect an entangled photon. This could have implications in describing how fast the visual system can respond to a stimulus, suggesting that vision may not rely solely on an electrical impulse to transmit information but may be able to leverage the much faster, almost instantaneous, effect of entanglement to transmit visual information. (p.s. Later experiments have been able to demonstrate that the retina is actually able to perceive a single entangled photon.)
Quantum Entanglement and Normal Body Physiology
Entanglement and the clockwise or counter-clockwise spin of atomic particles have been shown to play a role in physiologic body functions. For example, in a mammalian rat model, the electron spin of the noble gas element Xenon has been found to be important. Xenon with an electron spin can have anesthetic effects, while xenon without a spin has no effect. Additionally, different isotopes of lithium, with different spins, can change the development and parenting abilities of rats.
Many other animals use magneto-reception as a method to measure and interact with the earth’s magnetic field. Research has shown that this ability depends on quantum effects for its sensitivity and it is felt that perhaps entangled electron pairs are involved in this physical ability.
In fact, quantum entanglement may be the secret sauce of consciousness and may be directly related to the speed at which our brain works. In a recent study from Trinity College, researchers related the HEP (heartbeat-evoked potential) and the spin of protons in an MRI. Since the HEP signal is related to awareness and a conscious state, it is present when subjects are awake and absent when they are asleep. The researchers found that the HEP and MRI signals were present and synchronous only when the subjects were awake and conscious — which suggested entanglement between the HEP and the MRI proton spin signals which are otherwise physiologically unrelated.
This research still needs to be repeated and verified, but it suggests brain processes related to consciousness that are connected solely thru quantum entanglement, and not through any other physiological properties.
Consciousness and Memory
Another recent study suggests that consciousness is at its core a memory system and is designed to help us remember our life events, and does not take part in instantaneous decisions.
The theory states that :
Rather than perceiving the world in real-time, we’re actually experiencing a memory of that perception. That is, our unconscious minds filter and process the world under the hood, and often make split-second decisions. When we become aware of those perceptions and decisions — that is, once they’ve risen to the level of consciousness — we’re actually experiencing memories of those unconscious decisions and actions
They go on to note that our brain is bombarded with an immense amount of sensory information at any instant. In order to process this information and maintain flexibility and creativity, our unconscious brain must filter and process this information before passing it to consciousness. This allows consciousness to act as a memory system to organize our thoughts, and current sensory information pertinent to our task and allows us to try and predict the future.
Simply consider the total of information our eyes send to the brain — our vision includes not only what is directly in front of us, but we also see what is to our left and right sides as well as what is above and below us. In athletic performance, we are laser-focused on our task and often do not notice what is not relevant to our action — this is an example of the unconscious mind filtering out unnecessary data and only passing relevant vision to our conscious self. Thus, it appears that what we consciously see has been somewhat “edited” and thus must be somewhat delayed. Additionally, should an unexpected danger present itself outside of our field of interest, we will almost make a “reflexive” motion to intercept — a perfect example of unconscious vision driving our quickest and most efficient actions (reflexes).
Possible Effect on Athletic Performance
If all athletes could operate at the faster unconscious level, taking advantage of quantum mechanics to perceive photons at speeds that approached (or even perhaps surpassed ?) the speed of light by taking advantage of entanglement who knows what records could be broken and championships won?
Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to understand in detail how these concepts can be leveraged to aid sports performance — in the meantime, it’s pretty clear that unconscious, reflexive actions are faster than conscious thought and deliberation. By putting in the practice time and carefully training in one’s sport any athlete can gain that unconscious edge, even today!
Would you like to learn more about how your eyes (and brain) can help you play better in your sport? Sign up for my 5-day FREE e-mail course by clicking here (safe link to my website).
