When you’re getting older, doesn’t time seem to fly by? Suddenly, here we are at the conclusion of another year, even though it seems like just yesterday that the year was changing. There is a fascinating scientific reason for this occurrence.
One possible explanation for how time “flies” quicker as we become older is that our brains undergo certain changes, according to a recent research published in the journal Communications Biology (September 30). Researchers looked at information gathered over several years by the Cam-CAN study, which examines the effects of aging on the human brain.
A total of 577 people, ranging in age from 18 to 88, were invited to see a brief excerpt from the iconic Alfred Hitchcock Presents series called “Bang! You’re Dead.” While they observed, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans captured brain activity. For the purpose of researching the brain’s real-time processing and segmentation abilities, this tape was selected due to its ability to elicit synchronized brain activity patterns in viewers.
When looking for signs of a change in the brain’s steady activity patterns, the researchers turned to an advanced method known as Greedy State Boundary Search (GSBS).
It was fascinating to see that older people’s brains went through less “scene changes” compared to younger people’s throughout the same time frame. Time appears to fly by for grownups, and this may be the reason why, say experts. Time seems to fly by when the brain perceives fewer distinct occurrences inside it. This idea is in line with what Aristotle said many years ago: that the more going on at any one moment, the longer that moment seems to us personally.
Scientists believe this is due to “neural dedifferentiation” — the age-related loss of specificity in brain regions. When infants and toddlers see faces, for instance, neurons in the region of the brain responsible for facial recognition light up. Nevertheless, this region of the brain may also be engaged when older individuals perceive different items. Consequently, it becomes more difficult to differentiate between distinct instances since the lines between them get more blurry. The process of neuronal dedifferentiation, however, is not solely responsible.
A linguist from Maria Curie-Sk?odowska University named Joanna Szadura claims that two different time scales—the social scale and the internal scale—influence how humans perceive the passage of time. Time in society is measured in hours, days, and years. On the other hand, our internal scale is logarithmic. A year, for instance, accounts for 20% of a life for a 5-year-old but just 2% for a 50-year-old. Consequently, a year seems “longer” to kids compared to grown-ups. So, how quickly we feel the passage of time is dependent on both our internal methods of “measuring” time and the activity in our brains.
Fortunately, there are ways to stop time from “flying” by. New activities and significant experiences may make time seem more spacious and full, according to Linda Geerligs, one of the study’s authors from Radboud University. “Learning new things, traveling, or engaging in enjoyable activities can make time seem longer in the memory,” according to him. “Equally important are meaningful social interactions and activities that bring joy.”
In a nutshell, our ability to perceive time gets more “concise” and our brains record fewer distinct events as we become older. But we can, at least in our thoughts, slow down the subjective flow of time by keeping learning, exploring, and connecting with others. Therefore, if you think that life is flying by, it may be time to broaden your horizons and do something exciting.
