Time And The Human Brain

© 2010
Author: Michael G. Busby

Remember junior high school days and the seemingly endless, interminable days that
crawled one torturous day after another into the history books? Now, the laconic days
tumble by like a crazy windmill gone awry, spinning from one brief day to another in an
endless montage of seemingly brief interludes characterized by bright flashes of images
and sound bites. Where did the time go?

How many times have humans asked that question? It is difficult to imagine pre-historic
humankind posing that question but certainly we have asked it innumerable times since
the advent of time keeping devices. Today, we seem to ascribe the days hurtling by to a
super-heated culture dominated by a society scurrying to get from birth to death as fast as
our automobiles, airplanes, motorboats, and frenzied lifestyles can get us there. On rare
occasions we pause and wonder what it would be like to return to a lazier time when the
languid days passed by as a lethargic river destined for yesterday’s indolent ocean of
human endeavor.

Very little has been written about the human perception of time and even less is
understood about the phenonema. Until now, we just assumed the difference between
how we perceived time as a 12 year old versus how we perceived it as a 60 year old could
be attributed to the differing lifestyles of the two ages. But, lifestyle and responsibilities
are not the root cause of the difference in our perception of time as we age. The
difference is rooted in the human brain and its chemical make-up, a physical system that
can be modeled.

This article describes how we perceive time and why, from a physical systems
standpoint, time and our perception of it, is inviolate. That is, our perception of time is
system, or brain, dependent, not culturally dependent. Answering not only that age old
question, where did time go, the article also explains, using a couple of simple math
models, why our perception of time is an ever-increasing function as we move from year
to year and decade to decade. Everyone who has ever wondered why time seems to pass
by faster as we get older will marvel at the underlying simplicity of our time “machine”
and how it works. By studying the model, we gain a new-found understanding of how our
perception of time is not a function of lifestyle.

One of the facets of ageing is our changing perception of time. From early childhood
until we breathe our last breath we are confronted with an increasing sense of the passage
of time. Every living person experiences this amazing sensation of time passing ever
more swiftly with each passing year. Yet, the passage of time is not a function of our
perception and remains “constant” for eternity, for all practical purposes. I am
intentionally ignoring the impact of quantum mechanics, einsteinian relativity and
gravitational time-space warping.

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What is the cause of this phenomena? Is it reversible? Does our sense of time accelerate
uniformly over a person’s lifetime? Is our sense of time related to specific mental and
physical development stages? How is our sense of time related to our ability to learn?
After researching the topic for a number of years, I have developed an accurate math
model of the human perception of time. The model answers these questions and others.
Surprisingly, or maybe not, the model also underscores our capacity to learn as we travel
from birth to old age.

Let us think about a new born babe. When the babe is born, certainly, it has a biological
“clock” that started the moment of conception. However, his “universal time” clock did
not start until birth. When the babe was thrust into the world he will inhabit the remainder
of his life, he begins the process of cultural assimilation. While it is known babies learn
while in the womb, the learning is limited due to the limited environment and the limited
capacity of a still developing brain. However, birth heralds a new paradigm – learning
really begins at a ferocious speed at this point. So, the birth event is used to start his
“universal time” clock. It is called a universal time clock since it is his personal time
clock that will be synchronized with the movements of the planets, especially the
movement of the earth as it circles the sun. It is this cyclic movement which humans use
to measure time. So, at birth, our child is 0 (zero) years of age.

At zero years of age, time has not stamped itself upon the still developing brain. The baby
has no conscious awareness of time. Until birth, it has been isolated in the womb, with no
sense of passing time because 1) Its brain is developing from almost nothing to
something and 2) it has not been subjected to the daily vagaries of passing time, i.e. it
really has no concept of the rise of day and the fall of night. It is only when a human is
subjected to the motion of the earth orbiting the sun, rotating on its axis, exposure to
sunlight and darkness, and exposure to the other rhythms of living that we develop a
sense of passing time. 1 So, at conception we can think of his total sum of time awareness
as 0.

Mathematically, this is represented as TA= 0; where TA = Time Awareness. At birth, his

TA is approximately one year (nine months to be exact for most babies but we round up
to one year for convenience.). At birth, his time awareness is TA = 1/(0+1) 2 . Now our
baby ages for one year. He has a total time awareness of exactly two years. His universal
time clock registers approximately two years as having passed. His time awareness
accumulated during the past year as a portion of his total time awareness is now
TA=1/(0+1+2); another year and his TA is now TA = 1/(0+1+2+3 ); and yet another year

1
To test the validity of the statement, put yourself nude (so you have no device to help you keep time) in a
completely dark and empty room/closet. Before you enter the room/closet, note the exact time (hour,
minutes, and seconds) of a nearby clock/watch. Plan to stay in the dark room/closet for fifteen minutes.
After you think fifteen minutes have passed, open the door and look at your clock/watch. How close were
you to staying in exactly fifteen minutes? Most people come out after about seven-eight minutes. Without
external cues, we do not register the passing of time very well.
2
Time awareness for any given year is always a portion of the total time awareness experienced. At birth,
total time awareness and total life experienced are equal, and the yearly time awareness for each succeeding
year becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of the total time awareness experienced.

2
TA = 1/(0+1+2+3+4). We continue with this series for say, 100 years. The resultant
formula for accumulating time awareness per year is:

100
TA = ∑1 / n
n =1

Or

f(TA) dTA = ∫ 1 / n dn

which gives

TA = ln n; evaluated over the interval n = 1 to 100

Note: we do not include n=0 in the evaluation since total time awareness at n=0 is zero
and the logarithm of 0 is undefined.

For n=1, TA = ln1 = 0;

For n=2, TA = ln2 = 0.69
For n=3, TA = ln3 = 1.1
.
.
.
For n=100, TA – ln100 = 4.6

We are interested in how time awareness changes, year by year. The change is given by
the formula:

TA(n) = TA(n) – TA(n-1)

So, for birth we have:

TA(1) = TA(1) – TA(1-1)

TA(1) – TA(1-1) = TA(1) – TA(0) = TA(1) = ln1 = 0.69.

Let him age one more year and now his time awareness for year two is:

TA(2) = TA(2) – TA(2-1)

TA(2) = ln2 – ln1
TA(2) = 1.1 - 0.69
TA(2) = 0.48
Another year and we have:
TA(3)=ln(3) – ln(2) = 0.29.

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The formula tell us, with each passing year, our measurement of time is calibrated by the
number of years we have experienced time. That is, at first, we experience time as
passing very slowly. With each passing year, we experience time passing by faster and
faster, until about the age of 45 our sense of passing time finally levels out somewhat.
See Figure 1 which is a graph of the foregoing formula

Also, the formula means with each passing year, our memories perceive more time has
passed. This certainly seems to correspond with the human experience. The formula
assumes our subject lives to be 100 years old in good health..

The Changing Perception of Time

(linear scale)

0.8
The perception of Time (units of Busbys)

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
Age (years)

Figure 1

It is easier to see the relationship between our perception of time passing if we take the
graph in Figure 1 and invert it. See Figure 2. Now, do you see it? Between about ten
years old and 28 years old, our perception of time changes more each year than during
any years, before or after. And now you can see from Figure 2, the days from age 45
onward pass about as fast as the previous day. Thank God! I was hoping time would slow
down soon, or later. (tongue-in-cheek)

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 The Changing Perception of Time
(log scale)

1
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100

The Perception of Time (units of Busbys)

0.1

0.01
Age (years)

Figure 2

The math gives us another interesting relationship, the capacity to learn, assuming a
typical individual, i.e., no debilitating brain diseases, or defects. See Figure 3. It is the
reciprocal of Figure 1. The good news here is, we have the capacity to learn throughout
our life.

Let’s look at Figure 3 a little closer. By the time we are 13, we have filled up about 50%
of our brain capacity. By the time we are 25 years old, we have used up about 66% of our
brain capacity. The really good news is, we still have about 10% of available brain space
for new stuff when we are about 60 years old. If we remain in good health, a big if, I
know, we can still learn new stuff after age 60.

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 The Capacity for Memory

4.5

3.5
Memory Capacity

2.5 Series1

1.5

0.5

0
1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97
Age (years)

Figure 3

How does my model stack up against the psychology of the brain. Well, let us compare to
developmental theories. Maria Montessori, the Italian early childhood educator, and Jean
Piaget, the Swiss developmental psychologist, both proposed that children develop in
sequence. That is, more “primitive” abilities develop before more “advanced” abilities.
But, they disagreed on timing. Piaget believed children had specific periods of
"cognitive" or intellectual development, with children not reaching their "concrete
operational" stage until age seven. Montessori believed, however, that while children had
specific "sensitive periods" for development, they should be encouraged to develop all of
their senses from a very early age, and that self-learning would be based on the way the
senses develop. In summary:
Montessori:

• Birth to 3 years: Absorbent mind. Sensory experiences.

• 18 months to 3 years: Coordination and muscle development. Interest in small

objects

• 2 to 4 years: Refinement of movement. Concern with truth and reality. Awareness

of order sequence in time and space.

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 • 2.5 to 6 years: Sensory refinement.

• 3 to 6 years: Susceptibility to adult influence.

• 3.5 to 4.5 years: Writing.

• 4 to 4.4 years: Tactile sense.

• 4.5 to 5.5 years: Reading.

Piaget:

• birth to age 2: Sensorimotor period; obtain basic knowledge through the

senses.

• 2 to 7: Preoperational period; develop language and drawing skills, but self-

centred and cannot understand abstract reasoning or logic.

• 7 to 11 years: Concrete operational period; begin to think logically, organize

knowledge, classify objects and do thought problems.

• 11 to 15: Formal operations period; children begin to reason realistically

about the future and deal with abstractions.
Overall: Piaget claimed reading, writing and mathematics should be left until the
period from 7 years onwards: Montessori: much earlier.

See Figure 4. I have mapped Piaget’s child development stages on the appropriate portion
of Figure 1 by “normalizing” the data points. Note the tremendous change in brain
capacity between 2 and 7 years old. It looks like the curve fits the empirical data Piaget
gathered over many years of research.

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 Human P erception of Time

120

100 1

80
Memory Capacity

60
2
40
3
4
20 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Age (years)

Figure 4

What else can be said about the model and the brain? Probably more than I can think at
the moment but I am 59 years old and still have 10% unused brain capacity left to figure
out more as time (at a decelerating rate) goes by!