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Voluntary action expands perceived duration of its sensory consequence
Junghyun Park1, Madeleine Schlag-Rey, John Schlag
1Department of Neurobiology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1763, USA. jhpark@ucla.edu
Experimental Brain Research
|April 5, 2003
Summary
Chronostasis, the illusion that time slows down, occurs with voluntary actions like key presses or voice commands, not just eye movements. This suggests a general link between voluntary action and perceived time.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology of Time Perception
Background:
- Chronostasis is an illusion where the perceived duration of an interval is extended, often observed with saccadic eye movements.
- This phenomenon has been hypothesized to aid spatial stability during eye movements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether chronostasis is exclusive to saccadic eye movements or if other voluntary actions also elicit this illusion.
- To explore the influence of voluntary actions on time perception.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed voluntary actions: saccadic eye movements, key presses, and voice commands.
- The onset of a clock display was synchronized with these voluntary actions.
- The perceived duration of the initial interval of the clock display was assessed.
Main Results:
- The illusion of chronostasis was observed across all tested voluntary movements (saccadic eye movement, key press, voice command) when they immediately initiated the clock.
- Introducing a delay between the voluntary action and clock onset resulted in an overestimation of the delay period itself.
Conclusions:
- Chronostasis is not limited to saccadic eye movements, indicating a broader role for voluntary action in modulating time perception.
- The findings suggest a general neural mechanism linking voluntary action to the subjective experience of time.