Research suggests that post-stimulus positive deflections could be associated with timing. We compared offset-locked potentials N1, P2, N1P2, and late positive component (LPC) in temporal generalization and temporal bisection—with visual probe intervals. In both tasks, the LPC amplitude decreased with the duration of the current probe interval. A larger LPC was found after shorter intervals, whereas other ERP amplitudes did not change between tasks or across durations. We also found that the LPC for different responses indicates subjective time. We discussed our findings in relation to theories of human timing.

We investigated whether Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) indicated the subjective dilation of time when judging the duration of arousing stimuli. Participants performed a visual temporal bisection task along with high-level and low-level arousing auditory stimuli, while we simultaneously recorded EEG. In accordance with previous studies, arousing stimuli were temporally overestimated and led to higher EPN amplitude. Yet, we observed that time dilation and EPN amplitude were significantly correlated and this effect cannot be explained by confounds from stimulus valence. We interpret our findings in terms of the pacemaker–accumulator model of human timing, and suggest that EPN indicates an arousal-based increasing of the speed of our mental clock.

Interval timing refers to the ability to perceive and remember intervals in the seconds to minutes range. Our contemporary understanding of interval timing is derived from relatively small-scale, isolated studies that investigate a limited range of intervals with a small sample size, usually based on a single task. Consequently, the conclusions drawn from individual studies are not readily generalizable to other tasks, conditions, and task parameters. The current paper presents a live database that presents raw data from interval timing studies (currently composed of 68 datasets from eight different tasks incorporating various interval and temporal order judgments) with an online graphical user interface to easily select, compile, and download the data organized in a standard format. The Timing Database aims to promote and cultivate key and novel analyses of our timing ability by making published and future datasets accessible as open-source resources for the entire research community. In the current paper, we showcase the use of the database by testing various core ideas based on data compiled across studies (i.e., temporal accuracy, scalar property, location of the point of subjective equality, malleability of timing precision). The Timing Database will serve as the repository for interval timing studies through the submission of new datasets.

Human timing and interoception are closely coupled. Thus, temporal illusions like, for example, emotion-induced time dilation, are profoundly affected by interoceptive processes. Emotion-induced time dilation refers to the effect when emotion, especially in the arousal dimension, leads to the systematic overestimation of intervals. The close relation to interoception became evident in previous studies which showed increased time dilation when participants focused on interoceptive signals. In the present study we show that individuals with particularly high interoceptive accuracy are able to shield their timing functions to some degree from interference by arousal. Participants performed a temporal bisection task with low-arousal and high-arousal stimuli, and subsequently reported their interoceptive accuracy via a questionnaire. A substantial arousal-induced time dilation effect was observed, which was negatively correlated with participants’ interoceptive accuracy. Our findings support a pivotal role of interoception in temporal illusions, and are discussed in relation to neuropsychological accounts of interoception.

No abstract