David M. Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor School of Medicine, has specialized in studying the phenomena related to the perception of time by the human brain. And after several studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging, he has come to the conclusion that when an experience is new or surprising, the activity of our neurons to register it increases . This is because we pay more attention and file more details than when the experience is repeated. The memory that is established is, therefore, more "dense" and, when we remember the experience, it seems to us that it lasted much longer. That is, the "mental effort" gives us the feeling that the time elapsed was greater . This would also explain why in childhood , a time of life when novelties abound, time seems to pass more slowly than when we reach maturity.
In another study published in PLoS ONE, Eagleman led a series of volunteers to experience a free fall of more than 100 feet before falling into a net. The participants retrospectively recalled that they had rushed under vacuum for 36% longer . The delay in the duration of an event that causes fear – and that involves the amygdala, an essential brain structure for emotional memory – was not due to the slower perception of events while they happen, but to the subsequent recovery of the I remember, concludes the researcher.
