Memory over time

I just read an interesting article on memory. While the article was a study of why time seems to slow down in emergencies, it also talked about the difference in time when young and when older.

Instead, such time warping seems to be a trick played by one's memory. When a person is scared, a brain area called the amygdala becomes more active, laying down an extra set of memories that go along with those normally taken care of by other parts of the brain.

"In this way, frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories," Eagleman explained. "And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took."

Eagleman added this illusion "is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you're a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when you're older, you've seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by."

I found as I get older that each year seems to go by faster and faster. I suppose part of the reason could be because I am laying down fewer memories because many events are being repeated in a slightly different way. But sometimes many new memories are being made. Take for instance when I moved from Minnesota to Montana in 2001. Or this year when I hiked much more and in new places than ever in one year. These years seemed to go by just as quick.

In a related subject, I do notice that the feeling of wonderment and "being alive" - a heightened awareness of my surroundings - when I move to a new place has faded and sometimes now I catch myself and notice I do not have that same level of awareness of even my dull and ordinary surroundings as I did the first year or two of living in a new place. I had that heightened awareness when I moved to Minnesota and later when I moved to Montana. Even though I was older and 18 years separated the two moves - the heightened awareness was just as intense when I moved to Montana.

And I think the "living in a new place" feeling is slightly different than the "vacationing in a new place" feeling. I think it is because of the mix of doing familiar and ordinary things in a new place; while a vacation is geared around doing new in a new place things. Doing familiar and ordinary things in a new place is better as it can get a person out of a rut and show them there are different ways to do the same old stuff.

Similar to other strong emotions like lust, intense love/attraction, etc., the "living in a new place" feeling does not last and fades over time as the brain gets used to the sensation and the new become ordinary and routine. While a neat feeling, it is not worth totally uprooting one's life every so often to experience the feeling.