Experienced time is never real time: a neuroscientific enigma

We have no sense of time as such. The standardization of time has led to us all having common reference points. While the circadian rhythm controls most of our cells and our lives, it doesn't affect our perception of time. The proof is in the man who experimented with living in a cave in a glacier, cut off from all light. Although his rest and activity cycle was normal, he felt as though he spent 37 days there, whereas he actually stayed 60. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Neuroscientists and psychologists are looking into the question of this endogenous clock. It is thought to be affected by a number of factors.

• For example, lack of stimulation or feelings of rejection by the group tend to make time seem very long.
• Novelty, wonder and pleasurable pursuits, on the other hand, give a quicker impression of time. This would explain, among other things, why journeys are always felt to be short at the outset, because the departure is imbued with multiple stimuli, but their duration in our memory is very long and lasting, since recalling these moments lengthens them.
• In contrast, the daily weeks seem endless at times, but in the end, few memories remain and, with hindsight, they pass quickly.

What about that feeling, when an accident or danger occurs, that time slows down?

Technically, our neurons are incapable of lowering or increasing the speed of their transmissions. However, hypervigilance combined with an overheated brain in survival mode contribute, among other things, to the illusory feeling of time decelerating. Somehow, our mind slows down the pace of the sequence after the fact, in order to better analyze it.

Running time: 26 minutes

Image: NoName_13 from Pixabay