Scientists discover genetics play a critical role in being good at gaming

A new study has found that humans can see the world at a higher "frame rate" than other humans, meaning some people see the world completely differently than others.

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Humans see by converting light into electrical signals through cells called photoreceptors. These cells than then transmit the signals through the optic nerve to the region of the brain responsible for image formation, known as a the visual cortex. The speed, or frequency this process occurs is called temporal resolution, or a "frame rate". According to a new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the frame rate humans isn't standard across all humans and can differ vastly depending on genetic makeup.

A team of researchers took 88 volunteers and placed goggles on them and put a blinking LED light in their sight. The LED light blinked at different speeds. The test enabled the researchers to boil down the speed of which the test subject was no longer able to see the flicking light, and instead they saw a solid unmoving light. The results were surprisingly as some people weren't able to see past a flicking light above 35 times a second, while others were able to see up to 60 times per second.

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The team drew a comparison between their results and the results of other studies in the animal kingdom that found some species of animal can see fast-moving objects, such as prey, much better than others. The authors of the study stated that these individual differences in perception speed "might become apparent in high-speed situations where one might need to locate or track fast-moving objects, such as in ball sports, or in situations where visual scenes change rapidly, such as in competitive gaming."

"This suggests that some people may have an advantage over others before they have even picked up a racquet and hit a tennis ball, or grabbed a controller and jumped into some fantasy world online," concluded study co-author and PhD candidate Clinton Haarlem, also of Trinity College Dublin