The inner experience of time

Abstract

The striking diversity of psychological and neurophysiological models of 'time perception' characterizes the debate on how and where in the brain time is processed. In this review, the most prominent models of time perception will be critically discussed. Some of the variation across the proposed models will be explained, namely (i) different processes and regions of the brain are involved depending on the length of the processed time interval, and (ii) different cognitive processes may be involved that are not necessarily part of a core timekeeping system but, nevertheless, influence the experience of time. These cognitive processes are distributed over the brain and are difficult to discern from timing mechanisms. Recent developments in the research on emotional influences on time perception, which succeed decades of studies on the cognition of temporal processing, will be highlighted. Empirical findings on the relationship between affect and time, together with recent conceptualizations of self-and body processes, are integrated by viewing time perception as entailing emotional and interoceptive (within the body) states. To date, specific neurophysiological mechanisms that would account for the representation of human time have not been identified. It will be argued that neural processes in the insular cortex that are related to body signals and feeling states might constitute such a neurophysiological mechanism for the encoding of duration.

Encoding of event timing in the phase of neural oscillations

“…While dedicated neural structures for time perception have been described (Buhusi and Meck, 2005;Coull et al, 2004;Harrington et al, 1998;Ivry and Schlerf, 2008;Morillon et al, 2009;Treisman et al, 1990;van Wassenhove, 2009;Wittmann, 2009Wittmann, , 2013, the encoding of sensory event timing has been proposed to result from the intrinsic dynamics of neural populations not necessarily dedicated to temporal processing (Johnston and Nishida, 2001;Karmarkar and Buonomano, 2007;van Wassenhove, 2009). For instance, the timing of a colored visual patch could be encoded in the dynamics of the neural population dedicated to the analysis of color (Karmarkar and Buonomano, 2007;Moutoussis and Zeki, 1997).…”

Insights into features of anxiety through multiple aspects of psychological time

“…For example, in situations such as when we are bored or anticipating an unpleasant event to happen, time subjectively slows down and we tend to overestimate time. On the other hand, when we are engaged in activities that are rewarding or interesting, time appears to pass more quickly and we tend to underestimate time [18].…”

“…Researchers usually distinguish between prospective and retrospective time estimation [17][18]. In prospective time estimation, subjects are asked beforehand to estimate time from now into some point in the future.…”

The experience of time: neural mechanisms and the interplay of emotion, cognition and embodiment

“…The final contribution by Wittmann (2009) gives a critical appraisal of the state of the art in time perception research. The variety of psychological and neural models and the lack of consensus among time researchers are explained by the fact that different neural systems may be involved in the processing of different durations.…”