A late rat - mentality subject offers perceptiveness into how the brain tells clip , and its lead investigator believes the determination have pragmatic app for how we can cope with unpleasant things in life , or make the most of a good sentence .
By monitor the genius wave activity of rat as they repeated deportment over the class of an 60 minutes , research worker at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas , found that we seem to comprehend time through the number of experience we have , and not by the passage of minutes or hours . Their findings , published this month in the peer - reviewed journalCurrent Biology , suggest there ’s some truth to the sometime proverb , “ clock time flies when you ’re having fun . ” Only , you might swap fun with another Scripture — busy .
“ We tell time in our own experience by things we do , thing that happen to us , ” lead source and UNLV psychological science prof James Hyman say in astatement . “ When we ’re still and we ’re bored , sentence goes very slowly because we ’re not doing anything or nothing is happening . On the contrary , when a lot of effect happen , each one of those activity is advancing our brains forward . ” Thus , the research worker concluded , “ the more that we do and the more that happen to us , the degraded time decease . ”
Group of various wall clocks © Prapat Aowsakorn for Shutterstock
The subject field follow brain pattern changes in rodents ’ anterior cingulate cortex ( ACC ) , a part of the mind involved in cross experience , as they carry out a project . They observe that the rats ’ neuronal patterns systematically keep abreast the same path regardless of their f number . They said this points to how experience , rather than increments of time , bring about changes in our neuronal design .
There are some immediate , practical welfare in translate how our mental capacity differentiate clip , Hyman order Gizmodo over e-mail . “ If something is unpleasant , essay to expose yourself to something else promptly , ” he say . “ Do stacks of things . Do novel things . The more you may have , the more removed the unpleasant thing , ” he add up . The inverse is apparently also applicable .
“ Say you ’re with friends and everything is utter , ” Hyman explained . “ Then , I ’d say just stop doing stuff . Just sit and shiver , ” he said . “ Slow down and time will slow down with you . ”
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