So I stepped up to the edge and I fell, and the fall seemed to take a very long time.

我走到屋頂邊緣時，不小心墜落了，而我感覺墜落的時間被放慢了。

So then I was looking down at the ground, watching the red brick floor come towards me.

我盯著地板，看到地上紅磚朝著我的方向砸來。

And once I hit the ground, then I went unconscious, but it got me interested in the question of how we perceive time.

當我撞擊到地板後，我隨即失去了意識，不過我就開始思考一個問題——我們是如何感知時間的呢？

When I grew up and I became a neuroscientist.

長大後，我成為了神經科學家。

What I realized was we all come into the world with this idea that time is just a river that's flowing forward in one direction at a fixed speed.

我了解到我們都活在一個認為時間是以固定速度並朝同方向流動的世界。

But what we know is that it can be different in your head and in my head.

但其實，你和我的時間概念可能有所不同。

Because it's somehow a psychological construct, time.

因為時間就是某種因人而異的心理建構。

In other words, your brain is locked in silence and darkness inside the vault of your skull, and its job is to figure out what's happening outside but it has to do a lot of editing tricks.

換句話說，你的大腦就像是被鎖在又暗又靜的頭骨中，而它的工作就是要釐清外面世界的大小事，不過這過程中會出現許多剪輯上的技巧。

Your vision and your hearing process signals at different speeds.

你的視覺和聽覺神經傳遞訊息的速度並不一致。

And yet, when you see something like a balloon pop or somebody clapping their hands, it appears as though the sight and sound are synchronised.

雖然當你看到氣球爆炸或是別人拍手的時候，你會感覺影像和聲音是同步的。

And what that means is the brain has to be collecting all the information before it puts together a final story and serves that up to your conscious perception.

但那是因為大腦在統整最後的故事情節並傳遞到掌管意識的區塊之前，就已經收集好所有訊息了。

It's like there's a buffer where it looks for other signals coming up the pipeline, and as a result, it means that we're all living a little bit in the past.

這就類似等待下個訊號的緩衝時間，其實這樣看來我們都活在過去。

What we think is happening right now has actually already transpired some time ago, probably in the ballpark of about half a second ago.

我們認為現在正在發生的事情其實已經是過去了，準確計算的話大概約半秒鐘前。

In the lab, if I show you a photograph for half a second on the screen and then I show you that same photograph again for half a second and then again and again and again.

有一個相關的實驗，如果給你看一張照片半秒種，接著再繼續給你看同一張照片半秒鐘，一直持續這樣下去。

And now I show you a different photograph for the same amount of time.

然後，再給你看一張不同的照片半秒鐘。

It will seem as though the new photograph, the oddball, stays on the screen for a much longer time.

實驗結果發現，你會覺得新照片在螢幕上停留的時間較長。

Essentially, when the brain sees something that's novel, it has to burn more energy to represent it because it wasn't expecting that.

這告訴了我們，當大腦接收到新訊息，會需要更多能量去整理新資訊，因為那出乎大腦的預期。

This feeling that things are going in slow motion is a trick of memory.

有時，你會覺得世界像是在用慢速進行，那都是來自記憶的小伎倆。

In other words, when you're in an emergency situation, a part of the brain called the amygdala comes online.

也就是說，當你遇到緊急事件，你腦中有個叫「杏仁核」的地方會開始運作。

This is your emergency control center.

它是你遇到突發事件時的大腦控制中樞。

It lays down memories on what amounts to a secondary memory track.

杏仁核會建立你的次級記憶。

These are very dense memories.

而這些都是很訊息量很大的記憶。

And you're noticing everything around you and writing it all down.

你接收到周遭資訊後，大腦會把它們記錄下來。

So when the brain reads that back out, there's such a density of memory there, that the brain's only conclusion is that must have taken a long time.

當大腦要處理這些龐大的記憶，它會直覺認為這些事情一定需要花費很多的時間。

And I think this offers an explanation for why people think that time seems to speed up as they grow older.

這也就解釋了為何年紀越大會覺得時間過得越快。

And it's because when you're a child, everything's new to you.

因為當你還小，任何事情對你來說都是新奇的。

You're figuring out the rules of the world.

你正在探索這些新奇事物。

You're writing down a lot of memory.

你會把這些訊息轉換為大量記憶。

And so when you look back at the end of a year, you have a lot of memory of what you've learned.

所以過了一年後回頭來看，你會發現有許多在成長中的回憶。

But when you're much older, and you look back at the end of the year, you're probably doing approximately the same stuff you've been doing for the X number of previous years.

但是當你年紀越大，遇到的事物都跟前年、大前年，甚至大大前年一樣。

And so it seems like the year just went by in a flash.

你就會感覺一年很快就過去了。

Really the way to feel as though you've lived longer is to seek novelty.

有個方法能夠讓你感覺時間變慢，那就是尋找新奇事物。

So you can start with something simple, like putting your wristwatch on your other hand or brushing your teeth with your other hand.

好比把手錶換另外一隻手戴，或者用另外一隻手刷牙。

Something this simple just forces the brain into a new mode where it can't predict exactly what's going to happen but instead has to be engaged.

這些看似微小的事情也能讓大腦進入一個全新的思維模式，讓它無法預測接下來會發生什麼事情。

And what that means is when you go to bed at night time, you have a lot of footage to draw upon and it feels like your life is lasting longer.

如此一來，當你去睡覺的時候，大腦就有新的訊息能夠寫入記憶中，讓你覺得時間變得更慢了些。

Thanks for watching.

感謝你的收看。

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記得訂閱並開啟小鈴鐺來獲取新影片通知。

See you again soon!

下次再會！