An Odd Sense of Timing: Scientific American

The question of how changes in the environment give rise to the subjective experience of time in our brain continues to challenge psychologists and brain researchers

Key Concepts

• Our perception of time varies. In the here and now, busy phases seem short, monotonous ones long. In our memories, the opposite is true.
• Two events may look simultaneous but sound sequential because our sense of hearing is much better than our vision is at resolving tightly spaced events.
• The brain contains a variety of internal clocks and rhythm detectors that might influence the experience of time.

In a classic scene in the science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix , life starts to run in slow motion. Guns are fired at the main character Neo, but the bullets fly as if through molasses—and our hero’s quickened reflexes allow him to jump out of harm’s way. Many of us have experienced a similar deceleration of events during accidents or other life-and-death situations. You see the tree branch on the road, hit the brakes, and it seems like an eternity before you know if you avoided the collision or were too late.

Of course, we know that physical time does not objectively slow down just because we are subjectively stressed out. But can we really think and act more quickly in a fear-provoking situation? Recently neuropsychologist David M. Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine decided to find out by asking psychology graduate students to jump 150 feet from a high metal scaffolding into the center of a safety net.