3.21.2009

an extra set of memories

From Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies, a 2007 article by Charles Q. Choi:

When a person is scared, a brain area called the amygdala becomes more active, laying down an extra set of memories that go along with those normally taken care of by other parts of the brain.

"In this way, frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories," [researcher and neuroscientist David] Eagleman explained. "And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took."

Eagleman added this illusion "is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you're a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when you're older, you've seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by...

1 comment:

LKD said...

I thought the perception of time was related to metabolism. As children, our metabolisms are firing as fast as a hummingbirds so time moves slowly...or we move slowly through it. As we age, our metabolisms, alas, slow down (and honey, if you're partaking of birthday cake daily, you better beware!) (grin) and thus, time speeds up. Or we speed through it.

I can't recall when or where I read that.

And it is time that stands still, right? And we're moving? I can never get that straight. We only think time is in motion because of clocks.

Sigh.

Now, I'm all confused.