How fast do humans think? According to a new study, it's slower than you might expect.

The peripheral nervous system — the network of nerves that deliver information between the brain and the body — takes in environmental information at over a billion bits per second, a speed comparable to a lightning-fast internet connection. But people think and process that information at just 10 bits per second, researchers report in the study.

"That number is ridiculously small compared with any information rate we encounter in daily life," the researchers wrote in the study, published Dec. 17 in the journal Neuron. "For example, we get anxious when the speed of the home WiFi network drops below 100 megabits per second because that might compromise our enjoyment of Netflix shows. Meanwhile, even if we stay awake during the show, our brain will never extract more than 10 bits per second of that giant bitstream."

The study also proposes an explanation for why humans can't follow multiple trains of thought at once, like listening to several simultaneous conversations at a party. Evolutionary history may be responsible for this single-minded focus, the researchers proposed. The first nervous systems in early animals were only responsible for guiding an organism toward food or away from danger, so they needed to make only one decision at a time: which direction to move. 

It's an interesting story so be sure to follow the link and read it in full. Just be sure you don't try to multitask at the same time!