u/black-man13

I kept hearing the usual explanation that time feels faster because every year becomes a smaller percentage of your life. That always made sense mathematically, but it never really explained why it actually feels that way.

So I looked into it, and I found a couple of interesting ideas.

One is that your brain is basically taking fewer "mental snapshots" as you get older. Your eyes move around less, your brain processes things a bit differently, and the result is that fewer moments get packed into the same amount of clock time. If that's true, it would make time seem like it's flying by.

The other idea is about memory. New experiences leave stronger, more detailed memories, while routines tend to blur together. That's why a two-week vacation can feel longer in hindsight than six months of doing the same thing every day.

Neither of these completely proves why time speeds up, but together they made a lot more sense to me than the "it's just a smaller percentage of your life" explanation.

Curious if anyone has come across other research or explanations.

The brain is clearly capable of recognizing that a relationship was damaging, people can articulate exactly what went wrong, accept it intellectually, and still experience strong feelings of missing the person afterward. What is the actual neurological or psychological mechanism that produces this? Why doesn't the brain treat "this was bad for me" as sufficient information to stop generating the longing response?

I’m trying to understand the neuroscience behind why humans can feel “attraction” extremely quickly when seeing someone for the first time.

From what I’ve read, it seems like the brain reacts very fast (sometimes in fractions of a second), even before we consciously process what the person looks like in detail.

I’ve seen explanations suggesting that several systems might be involved at the same time, such as:

• Visual processing of facial symmetry and proportions
• Olfactory signals (smell) potentially linked to biological compatibility
• Voice pitch and tone influencing perception
• Familiarity effects (people we’ve seen more often tend to feel more attractive)
• Possibly early-life attachment patterns affecting preference

What I’m trying to understand in simple terms is:

What actually happens in the brain during those first seconds when someone feels “attraction”?
Is it a single system, or multiple processes happening in parallel before conscious awareness?

(I made a video exploring this idea visually, but I’m more interested in the scientific explanation here than promotion.)