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Scientists Make Time Pass Faster (Or Slower)
Scientists discover how to make time pass faster (or slower)
- Findings could also explain why time flies when we’re having fun
By Damien Gayle
PUBLISHED:11:39 EST, 5 November 2012| UPDATED:02:48 EST, 6 November 2012
A new understanding of how the brain processes time could one day allow scientists to tweak an individual’s sense of timing.
New research suggests timekeeping in the brain is decentralised, with different neural circuits having their own timing mechanisms for specific activities.
Not only does it raise the possibility of artificially manipulating time perceptions, but the finding could also explain why our sense of time changes in different conditions – such as when we are having fun or are under stress.
Stop the clock: New research suggests timekeeping in the brain is decentralised, with different neural circuits having their own timing mechanisms for specific activities
Two researchers from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis trained to rhesus macaques to perform tasks requiring them to move their eyes between two dots in regular one-second intervals, New Scientist reported.
Despite having to external cues to help them keep track of time, after three months the monkeys had learned to move their eyes between the dots with average intervals of 1.003 and 0.0973 seconds respectively.
Using electrodes, the researchers then recorded brain activity across 100 neurons in the monkeys’ lateral intraparietal cortex – the brain region associated with eye movement – as they performed the task.
They found that the activity of these neurons decreased between each eye movement in a regular way that allowed them to predict when the next movement would occur.
