Why and How do some insects like flies percieve time as slower than us!!?!?

Answer 1

i saw a television programme which wanted to show a fly's reaction to somebody swatting it, and to do so they slowed the film down. However they weren't saying flies perceive time any slower than humans, it was to show that they react quicker. ( 50 times quicker if memory serves ) I think it was to do with the visual stimulus being able to bypass any brain functions the fly may have and stimulate the flight muscles directly, almost as if the fly is moving before it has time to decide to move. The exact specifics, as you can tell, i am sketchy on, as i am not a entomologist. but i am sure it has something to do with reaction being more of a reflex action than a conscious decision to move.

Answer 2

I don't believe that this is proven. Personally I'm not so sure that an insect can perceive or understand time. An insects brain is called a cerebral ganglion, it is little more than a gland. Insects do not think because they have no conscious mind. They may perform actions that seem to denote intelligence like eating but these are little more than biological functions.

The reason a person usually misses a fly when they go to swat it, incidentally, has nothing to do with relative perception of time and everything to do with the fact that a fly takes off backwards which few people are aware of. If you hit at a 45 degree angle from behind the insect, you are much more likely to kill it.

Answer 3

the faster the life the slower time seems which is why you nearly always miss swatting a fly with a rolled newspaper. You think you were quick but to the fly (unless it was daydreaming!) that weapon is perceived in slow motion and he takes off well before the paper lands! Their metabolism and everything else that goes with it is normal for them but short for us. Remember as a child to be told to wait till the weekend seemed an eternity, but when you're older it seems round the corner already. That's because internally everything has slowed so the external time seems so fast.

If you've ever been in a car accident, as a passenger especially everything happens in a few seconds but feels like in slow motion and never-ending.

Answer 4

I would question whether a fly perceives time at all other than responding to day and night stimuli.

Answer 5

If your entire life was only a couple of days maximum, you'd want to make the most of it too wouldn't you???!!!!

Answer 6

no one knows this to be true.......anyone ever been a fly before , aside from jeff goldblume?