How the Brain Stops Time (New Research)

March 13, 2010

One of the strangest side-effects of intense fear is time dilation, the apparent slowing-down of time. It's a common trope in movies and TV shows, like the memorable scene from The Matrix in which time slows down so dramatically that bullets fired at the hero seem to move at a walking pace. In real life, our perceptions aren't keyed up quite that dramatically, but survivors of life-and-death situations often report that things seem to take longer to happen, objects fall more slowly, and they're capable of complex thoughts in what would normally be the blink of an eye.

Now a research team from Israel reports that not only does time slow down, but that it slows down more for some than for others. Anxious people, they found, experience greater time dilation in response to the same threat stimuli. An intriguing result, and one that raises a more fundamental question: how, exactly, does the brain carry out this remarkable feat?

Researcher David Eagleman has tackled his very issue in a very clever way. He reasoned that when time seems to slow down in real life, our senses and cognition must somehow speed up-either that, or time dilation is merely an illusion. This is the riddle he set out to solve. "Does the experience of slow motion really happen," Eagleman says, "or does it only seem to have happened in retrospect?"

FULL ARTICLE


I've always said that time slows when we are scared due to an adrenaline rush which speeds up cognitive functioning. I was hoping this was the conclusion they would reach, but as I read on, it seems they think that "fear does not actually speed up our rate of perception or mental processing. Instead, it allows us to remember what we do experience in greater detail.". Personally, I think the 2nd experiment is a bit sketchy, and it totally contradicts the first result. There are too many factors one must consider when you involve optical tests IMO...because it's obvious some sort of increase in cognitive functioning has taken place if thoughts are being remembered in greater detail and the experiments prove that peoples perception of time will slow when scared (but time itself will not actually slow).

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

I have always thought this, not so much time slowing down but our senses speeding up. It's as if your eyes and brain are processing more images per second or millisecond for example and allowing everything to seem as if it's slowing down.

[edit on 23-3-2010 by Solomons]

Solomon took the words out of my mouth, i too have experienced situations in which the wrong and i wouldnt be typing this post now.

We humans do not give ourselves enough credit, we are capable of so much more.

Shown and proven here, funny how Israel is taking credit for it in the above OP



-Kdial1

[edit on 23-3-2010 by kdial1]

reply to post by kdial1


Shown and proven here??

Which mate?

Time slows or reactions speed increases?

Are you seriously going to make me watch a 9 minute vid to hear your thoughts, please, leave a line of digest for me next time.

So i watched it........outcome...?...... INCONCLUSIVE

[edit on 23/3/2010 by scubagravy]

It's as if your eyes and brain are processing more images per second or millisecond for example and allowing everything to seem as if it's slowing down.

Yes...exactly! Great minds think alike, 3 so far. It's not really time slowing down...but it creates the illusion time has slowed down...which leads to more detailed memories!

EDIT: Actually, I want to address something. You stated "eyes and brain". The brain is more like the CPU, it can be overclocked, but it wont be easy to increase the performance of your web-cam. That's where I think they went wrong with the second experiment, it was based on optics. However, our eyes can detect flashing subliminal images, but because time is running so fast, our consciousness doesn't have time to detect the images, so they remain only in our subconscious mind. If I'm right, the second test was basically trying to see if scared people could detect these images since their perception of time was slowed and they had more apparent "time" to analyze their environment. I believe it's possible for this to happen, but it will be hard, and wont work the first time, the experiment will need to be tweaked...so the results they got with the second experiment don't satisfying me at all...

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

I dont know where abouts here on ATS i read it but there was a thread about "time slowing down" during accidents and such. What they also found out was that we create 5 times the amount of memories associated with these events than we do normal events. now i dont know who you measure memories. or maybe it was like 5 times the "memory" chemical is released. but yeah you have more memories of the event anyway.

Originally posted by scubagravy
reply to post by kdial1

 

Shown and proven here??

Which mate?

Time slows or reactions speed increases?

Are you seriously going to make me watch a 9 minute vid to hear your thoughts, please, leave a line of digest for me next time.

So i watched it........outcome...?...... INCONCLUSIVE

[edit on 23/3/2010 by scubagravy]

This is a video directly related to the OP this is actually the Experiment they are talking about in the OP.

Some people appreciate a visual, it is apparent you do not. So do not watch it.

-Kdial1

reply to post by kdial1

Some people appreciate a visual, it is apparent you do not

People certainty do appreciate it. Thank you, I'm watching it now.

EDIT: So there you go! That video proves that people can see quickly flashing images when they are scared. They state in the article "As it turned out, they couldn't.". This video seems to prove that wrong, and again confirm my suspicious. I said in my last post it would only take a little tweaking of the experiment, and I'm now satisfied with the results.

EDIT: Haha...that last part about the rats on drugs is so classic.

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

Considering your brain is a two sided scalar inferiometer, the slowing of time or the perception of time waves to the individual, is not a problem. This would seem to account for many psychic and other unorthodox phenomena through recorded history.

Being a motorcycle nutter, I've experienced this time dilation many times. One of the most memorable ones was a particular time my bike was gracefully spinning infront of me as I lowsided down the road. You see thousands of man hours of engineering performing a graceful pirouette, grinding and destroying itself infront of you, while you note each individual spark, shard of glass, shred of plastic and other bits and bobs coming off it. It's as if time has turned into treacle, putty in your minds eye.

Originally posted by kdial1

Originally posted by scubagravy
reply to post by kdial1

 

Shown and proven here??

Which mate?

Time slows or reactions speed increases?

Are you seriously going to make me watch a 9 minute vid to hear your thoughts, please, leave a line of digest for me next time.

So i watched it........outcome...?...... INCONCLUSIVE

[edit on 23/3/2010 by scubagravy]

This is a video directly related to the OP this is actually the Experiment they are talking about in the OP.

Some people appreciate a visual, it is apparent you do not. So do not watch it.

-Kdial1

If you read my post you would see that i did watch it, i determined that the results could be either way.... Inconclusive.

double post

[edit on 23/3/2010 by scubagravy]

I've read, though I cannot recall where, that, yes, our senses speed up in those moments of high adrenaline. However, the reason isn't that we just start thinking better. Instead, like the rest of our bodies in those moments, the brain turns to a fight or flight mode.

When you're in a situation that causes adrenaline to flow like wine, the veins in your muscles expand, and those to other non-essential at the time areas, like the stomach, close up. This causes more blood and thereby more oxygen and energy, to go to the muscles when they're most needed. With the combination of adrenaline, this is how a mother can lift a car off of her child yet struggles to get the groceries into the house.

The brain works the same way. When it goes into panic mode, those things processing all kinds of information shut off. Your scent might shut off. your inner monologue. Even the recollection of memory. Instead, all of the brain is focused on what is taking place right in front of you. As such, it seems time slows down just as it seems your computer speeds up when you close all of those programs running in the background. It's not that the processing ability has increased, but rather it's all being directed towards one thing instead of being spread out.

ooops ,triple post.

[edit on 23/3/2010 by scubagravy]

reply to post by junglejake

As such, it seems time slows down just as it seems your computer speeds up when you close all of those programs running in the background. It's not that the processing ability has increased, but rather it's all being directed towards one thing instead of being spread out.

That's a really interesting way of looking at it. I agree that something along those lines would take place.

reply to post by scubagravy

double post

More like triple post

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

Originally posted by CHA0S
EDIT: So there you go! That video proves that people can see quickly flashing images when they are scared.

-

Talk to a printer. Where the untrained eye sees a blurred stream of paper being sped past, I could focus and 'stop' the sheets to see if there was any problem apparent. Not for long, but long enough to see if there were any gross issues in the product.

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Yeah, but the experiment involves things moving so fast that it would be subliminal for 99.9% of people...the experiment essentially shows that people are able to see these images because time from their perception is going slower, so theoretically they should be able to see quickly flashing images which they wouldn't be able to see under normal circumstances, and apparently this is exaclt what happens when tested.

[edit on 23/3/10 by CHA0S]

reply to post by CHA0S


Then there is the experience when one is feeling bored, time seems to pass slower than when there is lots of activity. It is probably an illusion, for the clock ticks as often as always, regardless of the amount of activity.

And somewhat contradictory, I've experienced also that when there has been lot going on, I'd find myself suprised how little time has passed even it may feel that lot of time has passed.

-v

reply to post by v01i0

Then there is the experience when one is feeling bored, time seems to pass slower

Yeah, but I think when you are bored you're constantly thinking about the time and what you can do to ease your boredom...I think if you're focused on time, it's going to pass slowly...like your other example when there's a lot going on...you probably wish time would pass quickly, and you try not to think about it, which creates the feeling that a lot of time has passed when in reality not much time has passed.

well this accutly happened to me once ill tell you and you can draw your own conclusions from it .
I was 16 im 44 now btw riding a bike at 1 am going home from a girls house along a very dark highway.
anyway next thing i know im flying over the handel bars (hit a pot hole stoped me dead in my tracks)\
now is when things got all funkey i feal the family jewls almost bite the dust (akk close one) thinking man that was close. then thinking man im glade i have this heavy coat ( it was late fall) so when i hit the ground my arms wont be tore up.
then thinking this is taking forever minits passed i put my hand like holding my head up when your lying down even though i was flying through the air'
then thinking coffee tea or me ( in reference to flight i gess lololol weird stuff goes through your head when this happens.
finly half an hour later (man it realy seamed THAT LONG hitting the ground sliding from first all the way home forever still sliding to this day .
so this 2 seconds fealt like 3o minits or right near that .
I had time to think out all these things and more dude you all have got to try its so coooollll