How do we see objects in motion?

How do we see objects in motion? Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Rochester explains that aging affects the way we focus on moving objects against a moving background. 

“The human brain cannot possibly process all of the information around us,” said study lead author Professor Duje Tadin. “Being less sensitive to things that are less important makes the brain more efficient and faster at accomplishing the more important tasks.”

The study revealed that younger people were better at seeing small objects in the foreground and suppressing the motion in the background. Adults over the age of 65, however, had a heightened awareness of the background and were not as good at seeing the smaller moving objects.

The researchers found that the brains of older adults can be trained to process motion more like young adults by practicing visual segmentation of moving objects. With training, the older participants became less sensitive to the background motion. How can you tell if an object is in motion? If the object will go in different position, then I can say that object is in motion. Its position will change in relation to other objects. If you look out the window of a moving car, the houses will appear to move even though they are staying in the same place.

If an object changes its position with respect to time, it is said to be moving. A moving object is known to exhibit motion. Motion is a phenomenon that is very common in our daily life.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: University of Rochester, Duje Tadin, first author