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The Power of 30 Seconds
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline
Sometimes 30 seconds can feel like an eon…when it’s the ad breaking up your show. Other times 30 seconds pass like a blink. What if just 30 seconds a day could change your brain? Indeed, only a half-minute of focused attention could actually help you reprogram your brain toward a happier, healthier state. Does It sound too good to be true? Let me share how it’s possible.
We’re going to look at two studies of brain science and combine their insights.
The first study comes from UC Berkeley, published in 2022 in the Journal of Science Advances. The study was led by David Whitney, UC Berkeley professor specializing in psychology, neuroscience, and vision science. They had participants watch a 30-second video of a face morphing through different ages and genders. But here’s the twist: the faces only showed the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and chin — no hair to help guide their recognition. After watching the video, participants had to identify which frame matched what they saw. Almost universally, participants chose a frame from the middle of the video, about 15 seconds in, rather than the final one. The researchers concluded that our brains “see” with a 15-second delay, meaning our brains are constantly merging new visual information with what we’ve just seen to create a sense of stability.
