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It`s Okay To Be Smart, How Your Brain Makes Time Pass Fast or Slow

How Your Brain Makes Time Pass Fast or Slow

Hey smart people , Joe here.

Every 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, our planet makes one rotation on its axis. Time

is always passing… for all of us, all the…time, at a constant rate of one second per second,

in this constantly evolving instant called “now”, between a past that we can remember

and a future which we can not.

But if time is this unchanging thing, flowing constantly in one direction

then why does it feel like time is happening SO… SLOW sometimes?! Like

come on already. And other times, WHOOSH… time passes out

of our grasp so fast. Hey now! Whoa! What's happening here?

How can the same sum total of solar orbits, lunar phases, terrestrial rotations, or transitions

of a cesium-133 atom remain constant, but feel so different in our minds?

I mean, these days people are having a hard time just remembering what

day it is.

If you're not at work today, or you're working from home, you maybe be wondering, what day is it?

It's Monday.

What is it about COVID-19 that makes March feel like it was

approximately 4.7 years ago?! What makes time feel fast and slow?

[OPEN]

This is a stopwatch. And when you hear a bell, it's going to start. I want you to close

your eyes, count off 7 seconds in your head, NOW…

DING! Open your eyes. How close were you? Some of

you probably cheated and didn't do it, but those of you who DID, you… you probably

weren't that far off… WHICH IS AMAZING!!

Unlike touch, taste, or smell, our bodies don't have a sensory organ for

time.

We DO have an internal biological clock. But your body's timekeeping is tuned to the

broad patterns of day and night, – circadian rhythms. And like other animals, we also rely

on astronomical cues and biological hormones to notice the passage of months, seasons,

and years. But you have no internal timekeeping device that can accurately sense the passage

of seconds, minutes, or hours.

Which still doesn't explain the constant, ever-present ticking sound… which I'm

sure is a totally nOrMaL THING, right?! Heh. Hehe.you hear that too right?

Although there is no actual clock inside your brain, we now know that how we perceive the

speed of time passing really can be stretched or slowed. And scientists once tested

this by dropping people off a 15 story building. Let me explain…

Have you ever heard someone say that a car accident, or some other life or death situation

felt like it happened in slow motion? It makes you wonder if our brains are able to suddenly

reach in and stretch out a second, to give us conscious access to smaller windows or

slices of time, like milliseconds, when we're super freaked out?

Experiencing bullet time like in The Matrix when we're scared might let us react better

or stay safe…

So, to test this, scientists dropped people from 150 feet up. They had harnesses.

And a safety net. Doesn't seem very realistic to me but gotta be “safe” I guess.

During the freefall, each person was asked to look at a display with flashing numbers.

Only, these numbers were flashing by too quickly to be read under normal circumstances. If

a state of fright actually altered their time perception, they should be able to read the

numbers while falling.

So what happened when they were dropped? No one could read the numbers.

In scary times, our brains do not literally stretch time itself and allow us to perceive

smaller moments. But still, the study subjects reported that their own fall lasted longer

than when they simply observed others falling. Their memory of the fall was slowed down.

So, why does this happen? One theory suggests it has something to do with a specific region

of our brain. During stressful or negative situations, this region kicks into high gear,

and some scientists think this causes more of the brain's resources to be directed

at making memories of that moment. These memories are richer in detail, and when they are replayed

in our minds, give us the sensation that they lasted longer than other low-resolution memories.

This is even true in cases like PTSD, where people would rather the memories aren't

so strong.

Our emotions can also influence our perception of time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people

who said they felt nervous or stressed reported that time seemed to pass more slowly in any

given moment, while those who felt happy… … tended to experience moments passing more

quickly.

So yeah, that vacation really did go by fast – at least in your mind. (what is a vacation

again?)

But something interesting happens when we look back on these memories later. “How

is it September already? March feels like yesterday.” We've all experienced that

in some way, right? Even though time feels like it's passing more slowly in the moment,

day after day of routines, where nothing new is happening, our memory of that time period

seems to fly by.

We can see this in action, with something called the Oddball Effect.

When you're exposed to the same image over and over and over, a new or different image

seems to last longer, even though it's displayed for the same period of time.

This might also explain why time seems to pass slower when we're young. When we're

kids, everything is new. Creating memories of this never-before-seen information makes

our brain work harder and makes time seem slower. But as we age, we have more routines,

and fewer new experiences filling our days. So time seems to flow by more quickly. It's

almost like memories are the landmarks along the river of time, and the fewer we have,

the faster it feels like we are going.

So what's the conclusion? Thanks to COVID, many of us are bored, forced into routines

where we experience less newness. AND we're stressed, unhappy, or even frightened. So

time is going by really slow in the moment, and really fast in the long run.

These emotional connections to the perception of time seems to be universal among humans,

but the way we think about our physical place in time is not.

We all experience time and space together…

"I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson" "As you travel faster, or if you find yourself

in the vicinity of a higher source of gravity, time ticks more slowly for you than it does

for other peop…"

Not now, Neil deGrasse Tyson!

We all live on Earth, and none of us are near a black hole, or approaching the speed of

light so I'm not talking about the effects of relativity on whether time actually passes

fast or slow sometimes… ok?

Thank you. Now where was I?

Take your finger and point to the past. If you're from a culture anything like mine,

you pointed back there. Or did you point somewhere else? All human cultures seem to interpret

time through spatial metaphors. As if there is a you, “standing” in a physical location

in time, with you either moving through it, or it flowing past you. But have you ever

really thought about how your daily perception of time is influenced by things like culture,

history, and language?

For me, a person who lives in the United States and grew up speaking English, the past is

behind me. That's why we say things like “closing a door to the past,” or “the

week flew by me” or “knowing something ahead of time”

And when I think about the timeline, the literal line of time, it goes this way.

How would you arrange these images? Speakers of languages written left to right will order

them like this, while speakers of languages written right to left, like Hebrew, often

arrange chronological events in space like this.

And people who speak Mandarin, typically written top to bottom, often refer to the past as

above, and the future as below.

In Vietnamese and some South American cultures, the past – the “before time” which is

known to us and seen clearly in our memories – is in front of, not behind us. And the

future – obscured and unknown – is what is behind. The Yupno people of Papua New Guinea

orient their place in time with the contours of the land. The future is uphill, and the

past, downhill. Other cultures align time with cardinal directions, mimicking the path

of the sun.

Look at these dots. (flash three). The length of time between the flashes is actually the

same, but this larger space makes it seem like the third dot takes more time to show

up.

No matter how we do it, or even if we realize it, we all make some sort of link between space and

time, and that can vary based on where we're from.

There's still a lot we don't know about how and why this connection between time passing

in the physical world and time passing in the brain. But we are all living through a

massive, global human experiment right now, in this pandemic, about how our perception

of time can change based on how we experience the world.

In the eyes of physics, the difference between the past, present, and future might just be an illusion. But for us, a conscious

animal with a mind, this journey through the past, the present, and the future is remembered

and experienced in ways that even Einstein would find mysterious.

Stay curious.

How Your Brain Makes Time Pass Fast or Slow Wie Ihr Gehirn die Zeit schnell oder langsam vergehen lässt How Your Brain Makes Time Pass Fast or Slow Cómo su cerebro hace que el tiempo pase rápido o lento Comment votre cerveau fait passer le temps rapidement ou lentement 脳が時間の経過を速くしたり遅くしたりする仕組み 뇌가 시간을 빠르게 또는 느리게 만드는 방법 Kaip jūsų smegenys priverčia laiką bėgti greitai arba lėtai Hoe je hersenen ervoor zorgen dat de tijd snel of langzaam verstrijkt Como o seu cérebro faz o tempo passar rápido ou devagar Как ваш мозг заставляет время течь быстрее или медленнее Beyniniz Zamanın Hızlı veya Yavaş Geçmesini Nasıl Sağlar? 你的大脑如何使时间过得快或慢 你的大脑如何让时间过得快或慢 你的大腦如何讓時間過得快或慢

Hey smart people , Joe here.

Every 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, our planet makes one rotation on its axis. Time كل 23 ساعة و56 دقيقة و4 ثواني، يقوم كوكبنا بدورة واحدة حول محوره. وقت Em cada 23 horas 56 minutos e 4 segundos, o nosso planeta faz uma rotação sobre o seu eixo. Tempo

is always passing… for all of us, all the…time, at a constant rate of one second per second, 常に通過しています...私たち全員のために、常に...毎秒1秒の一定の速度で、 está sempre a passar... para todos nós, o tempo todo, a um ritmo constante de um segundo por segundo,

in this constantly evolving instant called “now”, between a past that we can remember في هذه اللحظة المتطورة باستمرار والتي تسمى "الآن"، بين الماضي الذي يمكننا تذكره 常に進化し続ける「今」という瞬間の中で、思い出せる過去との狭間で neste instante em constante evolução chamado "agora", entre um passado que podemos recordar 在這個不斷變化的瞬間,稱為“現在”,在我們可以記住的過去之間

and a future which we can not. そして私たちができない未来。 e um futuro que não podemos.

But if time is this unchanging thing, flowing constantly in one direction でも時がこの変わらないものなら 絶え間なく一方向に流れる Mas se o tempo é uma coisa imutável, que flui constantemente numa direção

then why does it feel like time is happening SO… SLOW sometimes?! Like では、なぜ時間が起こっているように感じるのでしょうか… 時々遅いですか?!好き então porque é que às vezes parece que o tempo está a passar TÃO... LENTO?! Como

come on already. And other times, WHOOSH… time passes out vamos ya. Y otras veces, WHOOSH... el tiempo se pasa vamos lá. E outras vezes, WHOOSH... o tempo passa

of our grasp so fast. Hey now! Whoa! What's happening here? من قبضتنا بهذه السرعة. مهلا الآن! قف! ماذا يحصل هنا؟ de nuestro alcance tan rápido. ¡Eh, ahora! ¡Vaya! ¿Qué está pasando aquí? do nosso alcance tão depressa. Ei, agora! Opa! O que é que está a acontecer aqui?

How can the same sum total of solar orbits, lunar phases, terrestrial rotations, or transitions How can the same sum total of solar orbits, lunar phases, terrestrial rotations, or transitions Como é que a mesma soma total de órbitas solares, fases lunares, rotações terrestres ou transições 太陽軌道、月相、地球自轉或過渡的總和如何相同

of a cesium-133 atom remain constant, but feel so different in our minds? van een cesium-133-atoom constant blijven, maar zo anders voelen in onze gedachten? de um átomo de césio-133 permanecem constantes, mas parecem tão diferentes nas nossas mentes? 銫133原子的數量保持不變,但在我們的腦海中卻感覺如此不同?

I mean, these days people are having a hard time just remembering what Quiero decir, en estos días la gente tiene dificultades para recordar lo que Quero dizer, hoje em dia as pessoas têm dificuldade em lembrar-se do que

day it is. dia é hoje.

If you're not at work today, or you're working from home, you maybe be wondering, what day is it? Se não está a trabalhar hoje, ou se está a trabalhar a partir de casa, talvez esteja a pensar: que dia é hoje?

It's Monday. É segunda-feira.

What is it about COVID-19 that makes March feel like it was ¿Qué tiene COVID-19 que hace que March O que é que a COVID-19 tem que faz com que março sinta que foi

approximately 4.7 years ago?! What makes time feel fast and slow? há aproximadamente 4,7 anos atrás?! O que é que faz o tempo parecer rápido e lento?

[OPEN]

This is a stopwatch. And when you hear a bell, it's going to start. I want you to close Dit is een stopwatch. En als je een bel hoort, begint het. Ik wil dat je sluit Isto é um cronómetro. E quando ouvires uma campainha, ele vai começar. Quero que feches

your eyes, count off 7 seconds in your head, NOW… os seus olhos, conte 7 segundos na sua cabeça, AGORA...

DING!  Open your eyes. How close were you? Some of DING! Abre os olhos. A que distância estiveste? Um pouco de

you probably cheated and didn't do it, but those of you who DID, you… you probably provavelmente fizeram batota e não o fizeram, mas aqueles que o fizeram, vocês... provavelmente

weren't that far off… WHICH IS AMAZING!! no estaban tan lejos... ¡¡¡QUE ES INCREÍBLE!!! não estavam assim tão longe... o que é espantoso!

Unlike touch, taste, or smell, our bodies don't have a sensory organ for Ao contrário do tato, do paladar ou do olfato, o nosso corpo não tem um órgão sensorial para

time.

We DO have an internal biological clock. But your body's timekeeping is tuned to the Tenemos un reloj biológico interno. Pero el cronometraje de tu cuerpo está sintonizado con el Nós temos um relógio biológico interno. Mas o relógio do seu corpo está sintonizado com o У нас СПРАВДА є внутрішній біологічний годинник. Але відлік часу вашого тіла налаштований на 我們確實有一個內部生理時鐘。但你身體的計時是根據

broad patterns of day and night, – circadian rhythms. And like other animals, we also rely patrones amplios de día y noche, - ritmos circadianos. Y como otros animales, también dependemos padrões alargados de dia e noite, - ritmos circadianos. E, tal como outros animais, também dependemos широкі моделі дня і ночі, – циркадні ритми. І як інші тварини, ми також покладаємося 白天和黑夜的廣泛模式—晝夜節律。和其他動物一樣,我們也依賴

on astronomical cues and biological hormones to notice the passage of months, seasons, em pistas astronómicas e hormonas biológicas para notar a passagem dos meses, das estações, 根據天文線索和生物激素來注意到月份、季節的流逝,

and years. But you have no internal timekeeping device that can accurately sense the passage e anos. Mas não tens nenhum dispositivo interno de cronometragem que possa sentir com precisão a passagem

of seconds, minutes, or hours. de segundos, minutos ou horas.

Which still doesn't explain the constant, ever-present ticking sound… which I'm Lo que sigue sin explicar el constante y omnipresente tic-tac... que estoy O que continua a não explicar o tique-taque constante e sempre presente... que eu

sure is a totally nOrMaL THING, right?! Heh. Hehe.you hear that too right? de certeza que é uma COISA totalmente nOrMaL, certo?! Heh. Hehe.também ouviste isto, certo?

Although there is no actual clock inside your brain, we now know that how we perceive the Embora não exista um relógio real dentro do cérebro, sabemos agora que a forma como percepcionamos o

speed of time passing really can be stretched or slowed. And scientists once tested la velocidad del paso del tiempo realmente puede alargarse o ralentizarse. Y los científicos probaron una vez a velocidade de passagem do tempo pode realmente ser esticada ou abrandada. E os cientistas testaram uma vez

this by dropping people off a 15 story building. Let me explain… isto ao deixar as pessoas num edifício de 15 andares. Deixem-me explicar... 這是透過將人們從 15 層樓上扔下來來實現的。讓我解釋…

Have you ever heard someone say that a car accident, or some other life or death situation Já alguma vez ouviu alguém dizer que um acidente de viação, ou outra situação de vida ou morte

felt like it happened in slow motion? It makes you wonder if our brains are able to suddenly sentiu-se como se tivesse acontecido em câmara lenta? Faz-nos pensar se os nossos cérebros são capazes de

reach in and stretch out a second, to give us conscious access to smaller windows or e esticar um segundo, para nos dar acesso consciente a janelas mais pequenas ou 伸手進去並伸出一秒鐘,讓我們有意識地接觸到較小的窗戶或

slices of time, like milliseconds, when we're super freaked out? fatias de tempo, como milissegundos, quando estamos super assustados? відрізки часу, наприклад, мілісекунди, коли ми дуже налякані? 當我們超級害怕的時候,例如幾毫秒?

Experiencing bullet time like in The Matrix when we're scared might let us react better Experimentar o tempo de bala como em Matrix quando estamos assustados pode permitir-nos reagir melhor

or stay safe… ou manter-se seguro...

So, to test this, scientists dropped people from 150 feet up. They had harnesses. Então, para testar isto, os cientistas deixaram cair pessoas de 150 pés de altura. Tinham arneses. 因此,為了測試這一點,科學家們將人們從 150 英尺高的地方墜落。他們有安全帶。

And a safety net. Doesn't seem very realistic to me but gotta be “safe” I guess. Y una red de seguridad. No me parece muy realista, pero hay que estar "seguro", supongo. E uma rede de segurança. Não me parece muito realista, mas é preciso estar "seguro", acho eu.

During the freefall, each person was asked to look at a display with flashing numbers. Durante a queda livre, foi pedido a cada pessoa que olhasse para um ecrã com números a piscar.

Only, these numbers were flashing by too quickly to be read under normal circumstances. If Sólo que estos números parpadeaban demasiado deprisa para ser leídos en circunstancias normales. Si Só que estes números estavam a piscar demasiado depressa para serem lidos em circunstâncias normais. Se

a state of fright actually altered their time perception, they should be able to read the un estado de susto alteró realmente su percepción del tiempo, deberían ser capaces de leer el um estado de susto alterou de facto a sua perceção do tempo, deveriam ser capazes de ler o

numbers while falling. números em queda.

So what happened when they were dropped? No one could read the numbers. E o que é que aconteceu quando eles foram largados? Ninguém conseguia ler os números.

In scary times, our brains do not literally stretch time itself and allow us to perceive Em tempos assustadores, os nossos cérebros não esticam literalmente o próprio tempo e permitem-nos perceber

smaller moments. But still, the study subjects reported that their own fall lasted longer momentos más pequeños. Pero aún así, los sujetos del estudio informaron de que su propia caída duró más tiempo momentos mais pequenos. No entanto, os participantes no estudo referiram que a sua própria queda durou mais tempo

than when they simply observed others falling. Their memory of the fall was slowed down. do que quando simplesmente observavam os outros a cair. A sua memória da queda foi abrandada.

So, why does this happen? One theory suggests it has something to do with a specific region Então, porque é que isto acontece? Uma teoria sugere que tem algo a ver com uma região específica 那麼,為什麼會發生這種情況呢?一種理論表明它與特定地區有關

of our brain. During stressful or negative situations, this region kicks into high gear, de nuestro cerebro. En situaciones estresantes o negativas, esta región se activa, do nosso cérebro. Durante situações stressantes ou negativas, esta região entra em ação,

and some scientists think this causes more of the brain's resources to be directed e alguns cientistas pensam que isso faz com que mais recursos do cérebro sejam direccionados

at making memories of that moment. These memories are richer in detail, and when they are replayed em criar memórias desse momento. Estas memórias são mais ricas em pormenores e, quando são repetidas

in our minds, give us the sensation that they lasted longer than other low-resolution memories. na nossa mente, dão-nos a sensação de que duraram mais tempo do que outras memórias de baixa resolução.

This is even true in cases like PTSD, where people would rather the memories aren't Esto es cierto incluso en casos como el TEPT, en los que la gente preferiría que los recuerdos no estuvieran presentes. Isto é mesmo verdade em casos como o PTSD, em que as pessoas preferem que as memórias não sejam

so strong. tão forte.

Our emotions can also influence our perception of time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people As nossas emoções também podem influenciar a nossa perceção do tempo. Durante a pandemia de COVID-19, as pessoas

who said they felt nervous or stressed reported that time seemed to pass more slowly in any que afirmaram sentir-se nervosos ou stressados referiram que o tempo parecia passar mais devagar em qualquer

given moment, while those who felt happy… … tended to experience moments passing more momento, enquanto os que se sentiam felizes... ... tendiam a viver momentos mais

quickly. rapidamente.

So yeah, that vacation really did go by fast – at least in your mind. (what is a vacation Así que sí, esas vacaciones han pasado realmente rápido, al menos en tu mente. (¿qué son unas vacaciones Portanto, sim, as férias passaram mesmo depressa - pelo menos na tua cabeça. (o que são férias

again?) outra vez?)

But something interesting happens when we look back on these memories later. “How Mas algo interessante acontece quando olhamos para essas memórias mais tarde. "Como

is it September already? March feels like yesterday.” We've all experienced that Já estamos em setembro? março parece que foi ontem". Todos nós já passámos por isso

in some way, right? Even though time feels like it's passing more slowly in the moment,

day after day of routines, where nothing new is happening, our memory of that time period

seems to fly by.

We can see this in action, with something called the Oddball Effect. Podemos ver esto en acción, con algo llamado el Efecto Bicho Raro. We kunnen dit in actie zien, met iets dat het Oddball-effect wordt genoemd.

When you're exposed to the same image over and over and over, a new or different image

seems to last longer, even though it's displayed for the same period of time.

This might also explain why time seems to pass slower when we're young. When we're

kids, everything is new. Creating memories of this never-before-seen information makes

our brain work harder and makes time seem slower. But as we age, we have more routines,

and fewer new experiences filling our days. So time seems to flow by more quickly. It's

almost like memories are the landmarks along the river of time, and the fewer we have, 幾乎就像記憶一樣,是時間河流上的地標,而我們擁有的越少,

the faster it feels like we are going. 感覺我們走得越快。

So what's the conclusion? Thanks to COVID, many of us are bored, forced into routines

where we experience less newness. AND we're stressed, unhappy, or even frightened. So

time is going by really slow in the moment, and really fast in the long run. Die Zeit vergeht im Moment sehr langsam und auf lange Sicht sehr schnell.

These emotional connections to the perception of time seems to be universal among humans,

but the way we think about our physical place in time is not. 但我們思考我們的物理位置的方式卻並非如此。

We all experience time and space together…

"I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson" "As you travel faster, or if you find yourself "Soy Neil deGrasse Tyson" "A medida que viajas más rápido, o si te encuentras

in the vicinity of a higher source of gravity, time ticks more slowly for you than it does In der Nähe einer höheren Gravitationsquelle tickt die Zeit für Sie langsamer als sie es tut

for other peop…"

Not now, Neil deGrasse Tyson!

We all live on Earth, and none of us are near a black hole, or approaching the speed of

light so I'm not talking about the effects of relativity on whether time actually passes

fast or slow sometimes… ok?

Thank you. Now where was I?

Take your finger and point to the past. If you're from a culture anything like mine,

you pointed back there. Or did you point somewhere else?  All human cultures seem to interpret

time through spatial metaphors. As if there is a you, “standing” in a physical location tiempo a través de metáforas espaciales. Como si hubiera un tú, "parado" en un lugar físico

in time, with you either moving through it, or it flowing past you.  But have you ever

really thought about how your daily perception of time is influenced by things like culture,

history, and language?

For me, a person who lives in the United States and grew up speaking English, the past is Для мене, людини, яка живе в Сполучених Штатах і виросла, розмовляючи англійською, минуле - це

behind me. That's why we say things like “closing a door to the past,” or “the позаду мене. Ось чому ми говоримо такі речі, як "зачиняємо двері в минуле" або

week flew by me” or “knowing something ahead of time” semana se me pasó volando" o "saber algo de antemano" тиждень пролетів непомітно" або "знати щось наперед"

And when I think about the timeline, the literal line of time, it goes this way. І коли я думаю про хронологію, буквальну лінію часу, вона йде таким чином.

How would you arrange these images? Speakers of languages written left to right will order Як би ви розташували ці зображення? Носії мов, які пишуть зліва направо, замовляють

them like this, while speakers of languages written right to left, like Hebrew, often

arrange chronological events in space like this.

And people who speak Mandarin, typically written top to bottom, often refer to the past as

above, and the future as below.

In Vietnamese and some South American cultures, the past – the “before time” which is

known to us and seen clearly in our memories – is in front of, not behind us. And the

future – obscured and unknown – is what is behind. The Yupno people of Papua New Guinea toekomst – verduisterd en onbekend – is wat erachter zit. Het Yupno-volk van Papoea-Nieuw-Guinea

orient their place in time with the contours of the land. The future is uphill, and the orientan su lugar en el tiempo con los contornos de la tierra. El futuro está cuesta arriba, y el

past, downhill. Other cultures align time with cardinal directions, mimicking the path 過去,下坡。其他文化將時間與基本方向對齊,模仿路徑

of the sun.

Look at these dots. (flash three). The length of time between the flashes is actually the

same, but this larger space makes it seem like the third dot takes more time to show

up.

No matter how we do it, or even if we realize it, we all make some sort of link between space and

time, and that can vary based on where we're from. tiempo, y eso puede variar según de dónde seamos.

There's still a lot we don't know about how and why this connection between time passing

in the physical world and time passing in the brain. But we are all living through a

massive, global human experiment right now, in this pandemic, about how our perception

of time can change based on how we experience the world.

In the eyes of physics, the difference between the past, present, and future might just be an illusion. But for us, a conscious 在物理學看來,過去、現在和未來之間的差異可能只是一種幻覺。但對我們來說,有意識的

animal with a mind, this journey through  the past, the present, and the future is remembered

and experienced in ways that even Einstein would find mysterious.

Stay curious.