What happens to your brain when you watch videos at faster speeds? This is what a study revealed.

In recent years, some users have incorporated a new lease on life when it comes to consuming digital content. This practice involves modifying videos, podcasts, or audiobooks at faster speeds.

According to a survey of students in California, 89 percent of young people tend to change the playback mode of their online classes to save time.

While it may seem like a useful method in an educational context to maintain students' attention and interest, it is also a potentially negative technique for the brain, as it creates cognitive overload.

In response, Sylvie Pérez, a psychopedagogue and professor at the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the Open University of Catalonia, Spain, points out that this consumption dynamic alters aspects such as retention, comprehension, and memory.

For their part, the researchers explain that when a person is exposed to oral information, the brain must assimilate three fundamental phases: encoding, storing, and retrieving.

They also point out that humans typically speak at a speed of 150 words per minute, but this can double to 300 and even increase to around 450, without exceeding the range of what is considered intelligible.

Within the meta-analysis, the experts discovered that age may be a key factor, as after comparing the memory capacity of a group of older adults with a group of younger adults, they found a weakening in people aged 61 to 94.

In this sense, researchers point out that people in the third stage should consume content with less playback than usual to facilitate understanding of the information.

Another observation they made is that if videos, podcasts, or audiobooks are viewed or listened to at 1.5 times normal speed, it doesn't affect memory performance, but the experience may be less enjoyable for users.

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