(ORDO NEWS) — Right now, your brain is tracking the passage of time without you knowing it, allowing you to focus on more important things like reading this article.
This happens automatically, but not sequentially. The brain’s perception of time can fluctuate, and some moments seem to stretch or shrink.
While these time deviations may be distortions of reality, technically they are not all in your head. Some of them come from your heart, according to a new study.
The heartbeat sets the pace for time perception, says senior author and psychology professor Adam K. Anderson of Cornell University, illustrating the key role our hearts play in helping us keep track of time .
“Time is a dimension of the universe and the basis of our sense of self,” says Anderson.
“Our study shows that moment-to-moment perception of time synchronizes and changes with the duration of the heartbeat.”
These changes in time perception (or “temporal wrinkles”) are normal, the researchers say, and may be adaptive.
Previous research has also explored their origins, suggesting that thoughts and emotions can distort our sense of time, making certain moments appear to expand or contract.
For example, in a study last year, Anderson and colleagues found that virtual reality train rides seemed to last longer for commuters when the simulated trains were more crowded.
But a lot of previous research has focused on the perception of relatively long time spans, Anderson says, and so tends to reveal more about how people evaluate time than how they experience it in the immediate moment.
To shed more light on the latter, scientists began to look for connections between the perception of time and bodily rhythms, paying particular attention to the natural fluctuations in heart rate.
While the overall heart rate sounds flat, each individual beat may be slightly shorter or longer than the previous one.
Research has concluded that the heartbeat can influence our perception of external stimuli, and it has long been suspected that the heart helps the brain keep track of time.
“The heartbeat is the rhythm our brain uses to give us a sense of the passage of time,” says Anderson.
“And it’s not linear – it’s constantly shrinking and expanding.”
The researchers add that the heart appears to help the brain work more efficiently with limited resources by influencing how it perceives the passage of time on the smallest scales, and by working in periods of time too short for conscious thoughts or feelings.
“Even in these instantaneous intervals, our sense of time changes,” says Anderson. “The sheer influence of the heart, from beat to beat, helps create a sense of timing.”
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.