Scientists Discover How Brain Tracks Speeding Baseballs and 120 mph Tennis Serves

As a baseball speeds toward a bat, the hitter has to track the projectile moving at high speeds. Yet when something is hurtling toward you at 95 mph, how is that even possible? Researchers have now discovered exactly how the brain tracks these fast-moving objects.

It takes about one-tenth of a second for the brain to process what the eye sees. This delay isn't a huge problem when it comes to slower objects, but it certainly does become a factor when a tennis ball is hurtling toward your racket. In fact, a tennis ball moving at 120 mph would have advanced 15 feet before the brain even registered the ball's location. Obviously, there's another factor involved when it comes to calculating the location of a fast object--otherwise, star athletes would be in trouble.

In order to actually understand what processes go on in the brain, the researchers used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) on six volunteers. More specifically, they located the part of the visual cortex that makes calculations to compensate for our sluggish visual processing abilities. By examining the fMRI and testing the volunteers with computer simulations, the scientists saw a prediction mechanism in action; this mechanism actually suggested that the middle temporal region of the visual cortex, known as V5, is computing where moving objects are most likely to end up.

"For the first time, we can see this sophisticated prediction mechanism at work in the human brain," said Gerrit Maus, the lead author of the paper, in a news release.

When an object speeds toward a person, the brain actually "pushes" forward moving objects. This makes us perceive the object as further along in its trajectory than the eye can see, and allows us to react more efficiently to the object.

The study is likely to have a major impact on other studies of the brain. The findings come just as the Obama Administration initiated its push to create a Brain Activity Map Initiative. The latest research could allow scientists to better accomplish the goal of creating this brain map.

The findings are published in the journal Neuron.