2023-10-19 07:55:00
Our perception of time is not the same when we are 8 years old and when we are 80 years old. The older we get, the faster the years seem to pass. And brain aging has nothing to do with it, according to a study.
As we get older, we often have the impression that the years go by faster. Indeed, when we are little, the days seem to last for weeks, while as adults we do not see the time passing, and the end of year holidays arrive so quickly. But how can we explain this phenomenon?
Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University (United States), looked into this question. In his study, published in the specialized journal European Reviewhe explains that with age our brain loses cognitive abilities.
we store fewer mental images
More precisely, our networks of nerves and neurons become more complex. As a result, information circulates less quickly and the brain records fewer mental images. During the day, “our brain stores fewer memories” than when we were young, and this “gives us the impression that our days are getting shorter,” said the American researcher.
As we age, not only do our brains store fewer memories, but we also tend to be more routine and experience fewer hectic things. However, our brain processes and evaluates the passage of time using significant events, according to Cindy Lustig, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan (United States). We use these new experiences “to demarcate the different eras of the ‘time of our lives’”, she underlined in the scientific media Earth.
another metabolism
When you are a child, explains Brian Yates, lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath (United Kingdom), “everything is new and unknown”. “This intense psychic activity gives the impression that time passes slowly, while for an adult stuck in the daily grind, it is the opposite.”
The specialist also indicated to The Conversation that this discrepancy is due to our metabolism. Over the years, “our breathing and our heartbeat slow down,” he recalls. On the contrary, in children “the heart beats faster and the lungs are more active”. And having more intense biological activity “gives the illusion of dilated time.”
1697707251
#feel #time #passes #faster #older
