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.
By monitoring brainwave activity in rats as they repeated the behavior over the course of an hour, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that humans appear to perceive time in terms of the number of experiences they have, rather than the number of minutes or hours that have passed. The findings, published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology, suggest that there may be some truth in the old adage that “time flies when you’re having fun,” although “fun” might be replaced with “busy.”
“We perceive time in our experiences as being based on what we do and what happens to us,” lead author James Hyman, a UNLV psychology professor, said in a statement. “When we’re still and bored, time passes very slowly because we’re not doing anything or nothing happening. Conversely, when a lot of things are happening, each of those activities pushes our brain forward.” Thus, the researchers concluded, “the more we do and the more that happens 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.”
