A recent study of rat brains is offering insight into how the brain perceives time, and its lead researcher believes the findings could have practical applications for how we deal with unpleasant events in life and make the most of the good times.
Researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who monitored brainwave activity in rats while they repeated a behavior over the course of an hour, found that we appear to perceive time not in terms of minutes or the passage of time, but in terms of the number of experiences. The study, published this month in a peer-reviewed journal, Current Biologysuggests that there is some truth in the old saying, “time flies when you’re having fun,” except that you can replace “fun” with a different word: “busy.”
“We know about time through our experiences, through the things we do and the things that happen to us,” said lead author James Hyman, a professor of psychology at UNLV. statement“When we are still and bored, time passes very slowly because we are not doing anything or nothing happening. Conversely, when a lot of events are happening, each of those activities pushes our brain forward.” Thus, the researchers concluded that “the more we do and the more things that happen to us, the faster time passes.”
The study tracked changes in brain patterns in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the brain involved in tracking experiences, as the rats performed the task. They found that the rats’ neural patterns consistently followed the same paths, regardless of speed. This suggests that experience, not the passage of time, leads to changes in neural patterns, the researchers said.
Understanding how the brain perceives time has immediate practical benefits, Hyman told Gizmodo in an email. “If something is unpleasant, immediately try to place yourself in something different,” he said. “Variety. Do something new. The more you experience it, the more the unpleasant thing will move away from you,” he added. Apparently the opposite is true too.
“Let’s say you’re with friends and everything is perfect,” Hyman explained. “Stop doing anything and just sit back and relax,” he said. “Slowing down slows down time.”
