Our experience of prison term does n’t always match the perfect ticking of a clock . As the famous quote ( often attributed to Einstein ) goes : “ Sit on a hot stove for a minute , and it seems like an hour . Sit with a pretty girl for an hour , and it seems like a second . ”
Scientists at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience ( NTNU ) in Norway have now key the connection of brain cells , holler theenigmatic sidelong entorhinal lens cortex ( LEC),that parcel out directly with this subjective experience of clock time . The inquiry isagiant leap forward in our understanding of the experience of time , especially how it distorts and morphs with our memory , as reported today in the journalNature .
" This meshing provide timestamps for events and keep track of the order of event within an experience , " Professor Edvard Moser , Nobel laureate and director of the Kavli Institute at the NTNU , said in astatement .
Humans and other fauna have multiple dissimilar “ biological filaree ” ticking forth in their consistency to quantify different corporal function , most notably our 24 - time of day circadian cycle that tells us when to log Z’s or the 10 - second clock in our hippocampal cells . The new research describe a very specific “ neuronic clock ” that works like a “ substantial time - coding signal deep inside the brainpower ” to record our experiences , the chain of event , and our memories .
“ Our study reveals how the mentality makes sense of time as an event is experient , " explains lead generator Albert Tsao . " The internet does not explicitly encode time . What we measure is rather a immanent time derived from the ongoing flow of experience . "
To touch this determination , scientist analyse the mental capacity of rat while they performed different labor . First , they were liberal to run around and furrow bits of deep brown . In the 2nd part , they were give the hard task of chamfer chocolate while ferment around and rotund in an eight - shaped maze .
The two activities examine a massive difference in the time - coding signals of the LEC , the time - measuring net . For the stimulating “ fun ” first task , the dirty dog appear to have a just track record of time and idea about the succession of events . In the second part , the activity of the LEC was steady and predictable , yet also repetitious and overlapping
“ The data point suggest that the rat had a refined understanding of temporalty during each lick , but a poor understanding of clip from lap to lap and from the start to end throughout the experiment , " tote up Tsao .
As the researchers excuse , this shows that our activity ( aka the subject of your experience ) can actually change the course of the prison term - signaling in LEC and distort the way you comprehend clip . Trippy .
