Experienced time expands and contracts within each heartbeat, 2022, Arslanova & Tsakiris,

Experienced time expands and contracts within each heartbeat, 2022, Arslanova, I., & Tsakiris PsyArXiv Preprints https://psyarxiv.com/vygqf/

Abstract
The experience of time is highly subjective. When we stare at the hands of a clock, a minute can feel much longer than when we are swept in a fun activity. Salient changes in external milieu (e.g., fluctuations in the visual scene) as well as in emotional states (e.g., arousal) have all been postulated to influence duration perception and the experience of time. Here, we focus on the role of cardiac signals, that provide a continuous background to all information processing. To study the causal influence of cardiac signals on duration perception, we presented timed stimuli either during the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle, when baroreceptors are firing signals to the brain, or during the diastolic phase, when baroreceptors are quiescent. Time perception was quantified with a temporal bisection task. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were an emotionally neutral visual image or an auditory beep, while in Experiment 2 we modulated the emotional content of the stimuli by asking participants to judge the duration of fearful and happy faces. We also measured participants subjective valence and arousal ratings as well as their ability to track their own heartbeats. For neutral and low arousal stimuli, stimulus presentation at systole led to a subjective temporal contraction, while diastolic trials led to temporal expansion. Like an accordion that contracts and expands time within each heartbeat. Importantly, inducing heightened arousal broke down that cardiac balance. Our results document how phasic interoceptive signals from the heart shape time perception.

 

This may have relevance for work on Functional Neurological Disorders that relies on interoception measures.