From tennis to video games, the secret is super-fast vision. Some people perceive more visual inputs per second than others.
Researchers from the Neuroscience Institute and the Zoology Department of Trinity College Dublin tried to understand how much this ability varies from person to person. Although there is significant variability between people, in individuals the trait appears to be quite stable over time, says the study's first author, Clinton Haarlem. The researchers believe individual differences in perception speed may become evident in high-speed situations where it is necessary to locate or track moving objects.