The subjective sense that time moves faster as we get older is a universal one, and over the years scientists have proffered a number of different explanations as to why this happens. A professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University is suggesting a new and strange hypothesis to explain the phenomena, and it has to do with our ageing brains.

One of the common psychological explanations behind our sense of time moving faster with age is that the more familiar the perceptual information around us is, the less attention we pay to it. Children, for example, are constantly perceiving new events and environments, using significantly more brain power to process day-to-day information. As we get older, the novelty of our reality slowly tapers off, leaving one with the sense that time is passing more rapidly. Continue reading.

Originally posted on New Atlas.