• Krudler@lemmy.worldOP
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    22 hours ago

    Humans have an innate way of telling time. When you think about it, where would this sense come from?

    Turns out that there is actually a small chunk of the brain that is dedicated to keeping time. And that system synchronizes with similar systems throughout the body to keep them synchronized.

    And that primary system figures out how to align its own “clock” by connecting to other parts of the brain like the nerve paths of the eyes. It’s not fully understood yet, but at the very least we know that incoming light can have an effect.

    This time-keeping functionality is critical for telling the body when to wake, sleep, be active, etc.

    And it’s the equivalent of a pendulum in a grandfather clock… It ticks back and forth at a predictable rate. But it’s biomechanical in a sense that it runs on electrical and chemical signals, not a spring driven thing like in a physical clock.