Why does time flow faster for the elderly? Scientists answer

It is well known that older people perceive the passage of time differently than young people. For old people, time flies fast, no matter what they are doing. There were many hypotheses explaining the difference in the feeling of time in young people and elderly people, but no one could substantiate their version. Now this mystery has been solved and Japanese neuroscientists have done it.

Japanese scientists Hayashi (Hayashi) and Ivry (Ivry) from the National Institute of Health conducted serious scientific work and came to the conclusion that the perception of time is distorted in old people due to a violation of the interconnections of brain neurons.

To study this phenomenon, experts examined the brain activity of a group of elderly people using an MRI machine. Each of the volunteers was shown a gray circle 30 times, having previously informed how long this process would take. After completing the experiment, the participants told how much they felt the demonstration of the circle took.

The overwhelming number of participants in the experiment incorrectly determined the time during which a geometric figure was shown on the screen. The subjects were given time to think about the answer, during which their brain activity was monitored using sensitive equipment.

It turned out that the activity of neurons decreased when estimating time. This means that the neurons responsible for the sense of time have "aged" and no longer have time to work synchronously with the neurons of other groups. It is because of this that older people feel time differently than young people and it seems to them that events last longer than they actually do. Because of this factor, the old man's day "shrinks" and seems short and unproductive.