Relationship between daily fluctuations of body temperature and the processing of sub-second intervals

Psychophysiological stress influences temporal accuracy

Distortions of duration perception are often observed in response to highly arousing stimuli, but the exact mechanisms that evoke these variations are still under debate. Here, we investigate the effect of induced physiological arousal on time perception. Thirty-eight university students (22.89 ± 2.5; 28 females) were tested with spontaneous finger-tapping tasks and a time bisection task (with stimuli between 300 and 900 ms). Before the time bisection task, half of the participants (STRESS group) performed a stress-inducing task, i.e., the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), whereas the other participants (CONTROL group) performed a control task, the Paced Auditory Number Reading Task (PANRAT). The PASAT induced a greater heart rate, but not electrodermal, increase, as well as a more unpleasant and arousing state compared to the PANRAT. Moreover, although the two groups presented a similar performance at the finger-tapping tasks, participants in the STRESS group showed better temporal performance at the time bisection task (i.e., lower constant error) than the controls. These results indicate that psychophysiological stress may alter the subsequent perception of time.

Temporal disorientations and distortions during isolation

Understanding how the brain maps time is central to neuroscience, behavior, psychology, and cognition. Just as in spatial navigation, self-positioning in a temporal cognitive map depends on numerous factors that are both exogenous and endogenous (e.g. time of day and experienced durations, respectively). The deprivation of external temporal landmarks can greatly reduce the ability of participants to orient in time and to formulate an adequate endogenous representation of time. However, this area of investigation in humans shows a great paucity of empirical data. This article aims at unearthing some of the experimental work that has systematically explored how humans' awareness of time is affected by varying degrees of isolation protocols. The assessment of the literature on the impact of isolation (broadly construed) on human temporalities may contribute to contextualizing the temporal distortions and disorientations reported during the ongoing worldwide pandemic Covid-19.

Lack of Temporal Impairment in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment

In the present study, we investigate possible temporal impairment in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the amount of temporal distortions caused by the presentation of emotional facial expressions (anger, shame, and neutral) in MCI patients and controls. Twelve older adults with MCI and 14 healthy older adults were enrolled in the present study. All participants underwent a complete neuropsychological evaluation. We used three timing tasks to tap temporal abilities, namely time bisection (standard intervals lasting 400 and 1600 ms), finger-tapping (free and 1 s), and simple reaction-time tasks. The stimuli used in the time bisection task were facial emotional stimuli expressing anger or shame to investigate a possible contribution of emotional information as previously observed in healthy adults. MCI patients showed temporal abilities comparable to controls. We observed an effect of facial emotional stimuli on time perception when data were analyzed in terms of proportion of long responses, and this result was mainly driven by the temporal overestimation when a facial expression of anger was presented in controls. Results seem to suggest that the severity of the cognitive dysfunction accounts more for subjective temporal impairment than a compromised internal clock.

Core body temperature speeds up temporal processing and choice behavior under deadlines

Evidence suggests that human timing ability is compromised by heat. In particular, some studies suggest that increasing body temperature speeds up an internal clock, resulting in faster time perception. However, the consequences of this speed-up for other cognitive processes remain unknown. In the current study, we rigorously tested the speed-up hypothesis by inducing passive hyperthermia through immersion of participants in warm water. In addition, we tested how a change in time perception affects performance in decision making under deadline stress. We found that participants underestimate a prelearned temporal interval when body temperature increases, and that their performance in a two-alternative forced-choice task displays signatures of increased time pressure. These results show not only that timing plays an important role in decision-making, but also that this relationship is mediated by temperature. The consequences for decision-making in job environments that are demanding due to changes in body temperature may be considerable.

A Brief History of “The Psychology of Time Perception”

Basic mechanisms of interval timing and associative learning are shared by many animal species, and develop quickly in early life, particularly across infancy, and childhood. Indeed, John Wearden in his book “The Psychology of Time Perception”, which is based on decades of his own research with colleagues, and which our commentary serves to primarily review, has been instrumental in implementing animal models and methods in children and adults, and has revealed important similarities (and differences) between human timing (and that of animals) when considered within the context of scalar timing theory. These seminal studies provide a firm foundation upon which the contemporary multifaceted field of timing and time perception has since advanced. The contents of the book are arguably one piece of a larger puzzle, and as Wearden cautions, “The reader is warned that my own contribution to the field has been exaggerated here, but if you are not interested in your own work, why would anyone else be?” Surely there will be many interested readers, however the book is noticeably lacking in it neurobiological perspective. The mind (however it is conceived) needs a brain (even if behaviorists tend to say “the brain behaves”, and most neuroscientists currently have a tenuous grasp on the neural mechanisms of temporal cognition), and to truly understand the psychology of time, brain and behavior must go hand in hand regardless of the twists, turns, and detours along the way.