Sub-second and multi-second dopamine dynamics underlie variability in human time perception.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Subject Research

Background:

• The perception of time is crucial for human cognition and emotion.
• Dopamine's role in timing is established in animal models but not directly studied in humans.
• Understanding dopamine's impact on human time perception is a key research gap.

Approach:

• Measured dopamine levels in the human striatum with high temporal resolution during deep brain stimulation surgery.
• Assessed participants' subjective judgments of time intervals.
• Correlated real-time dopamine fluctuations with temporal perception accuracy and biases.

Key Points:

• Fast, phasic dopamine releases were linked to the underestimation of time intervals.
• Slower, tonic decreases in dopamine correlated with reduced precision in temporal judgments.
• This highlights a complex relationship between dopamine dynamics and the human experience of time.

Conclusions:

• Dopamine dynamics, including both rapid signals and slower changes, significantly modulate human time perception.
• These findings provide novel insights into the neurochemical basis of subjective time.
• The study underscores the intricate role of the dopaminergic system in conscious temporal experience.