Clubb Chimera Martial Arts : CCMA

The current issue of New Scientist magazine spotlights a fascinating study on our perceptions of time. What should be of particular interest to those involved in self defence training and combat sports is the research being done on how we perceive time when under stress. Usually when we are discussing a violent confrontation the main physiological area we look at is adrenaline, dopamine, endorphines and other naturally occurring chemicals that alter the way we feel. Often we credit one or a combination of such chemicals for the way time appears to slow down or we get an “outside body” experience in time when experience fear. However, this particular article, written by Douglas Fox, looks directly at the way the brain slices up time without any mention of these other factors.

In addition to looking at how matters can wrong - as in the case schizophrenia - the article also discusses how we might be able to speed up the brain’s response time. John Weardon, who will be publishing his results in “Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology“, claims his click exercise has actually speeded up his subject’s information processing by 10 per cent. He has further postulated that “By listening to click trains through headphones, cricket or baseballs batters might improve their reaction times and scores”. Of course, this is still in the realm of hypotheses at the moment and Weardon takes on the burden of proof, but it will be interesting to see how his experiments progress.

Please click below for details on the full article.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.300-timewarp-how-your-brain-creates-the-fourth-dimension.html