Not every animal experiences the world at the same speed.
Clinton Haarlem, postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity College, looks to visual processing speeds to explain why.
Faculty Bio:
Dr. Clinton Haarlem’s research focuses on variation in visual perception rates, both across species and across individuals. Clinton’s work is multidisciplinary and incorporates zoology, ecology and neuroscience to explore the dynamic interplay between sensory perception, behaviour and the environment.
Transcript:
Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to swat a fly? One of the reasons is because flies can see events happening in the world more than twice as fast as we can, allowing them to react to situations with incredible speed. But why do different animals see the world at different rates, and how does this shape their interactions with the world?
These are the types of questions we aim to address with our research. Using a metric called the “critical flicker fusion threshold,” we can measure how fast the visual processing abilities of animals are. We can then compare how species with different visual processing rates differ in their physiology, their behaviour and the types of habitats they occupy.
For example, we have found that species that live fast paced lifestyles, like those that are highly manoeuvrable or those that actively chase after prey, tend to possess much faster perception than more sluggish species or species that graze on stationary foods. Flying species in particular have extremely fast vision. After all, a peregrine falcon diving at over 300 km/h through the air needs pinpoint precision and expert timing to catch its prey. A high visual temporal resolution allows it to do just that.
Our work informs how sensory systems are not only highly influenced by evolutionary background, but also by the environment and by behaviour. This helps us develop a greater understanding of how species living in similar habitats may have an entirely different experience of the world around them. Gaining a better understanding of the sensory worlds of animals is not only valuable in behavioural - and ecological research, but it can also help to improve conservation strategies and animal welfare practices by fostering more tailored - and individualized approaches.
