Science of time: What makes our internal clock tick
Neuroscientists are exploring how brain and body make sense of our most ephemeral resource. In warp-speed modern America, time has become one of our most precious resources. We manage it, and we expend it carefully. ¶ Ironic, then, that a resource as precious as seconds, minutes and hours is so poorly understood and so routinely misestimated by modern humans -- by 15% to 25% in either direction, depending on the individual and the acuity of his or her time perception. But understanding our ability to perceive time -- and to use time to make sense of our world -- is one of the newest and most sweeping frontiers of neuroscience. ¶ Says UCLA neuroscientist Dean Buonomano: "In order to understand the nature of the human mind, we must unravel the mystery of how the brain tells time, in both normal and pathological states." ¶ Against that backdrop, the temporally challenged have become more scientifically relevant than ever. Neuroscientists have come to recognize that patients with devastating brain disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases greatly underestimate the passage of time. Poor timing is a hallmark in several psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, autism and attention deficit disorder. Many of about 5,500 soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injury will find that faulty timing is one of the invisible wounds that follow them into civilian life. And researchers have confirmed that as we reach senior status, our internal clock grows increasingly unreliable.