SCIENTISTS believe they may have found the parts of the brain involved in controlling the way we perceive time.
We have all felt the sensation of hours flying by when having fun or the long wait for a kettle to boil.
Researchers have now pinpointed regions of the brain which may be responsible for the phenomenon - a central mystery in the neurobiology of the human condition.
In the study, 12 volunteers watched an image while researchers monitored their brain activity, the journal Science reported.
Simulating the "watched pot never boils" scenario the subjects focused their attention on either the duration of the image or its colour.
The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging to locate the brain parts involved in the attentional modulation of time.
They were in an area called the corticostriatal loop, including one area believed to provide a unique neural "time stamp."