The effect of individual visual sensitivity on time perception

Bibliographic Details
Title: The effect of individual visual sensitivity on time perception
Authors: Alexandra Ružičková, Lenka Jurkovičová, Julie Páleník, Keith A. Hutchison, Jiří Chmelík, Kristína Mitterová, Vojtěch Juřík
Source: Scientific Reports, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2025)
Publisher Information: Nature Portfolio, 2025.
Publication Year: 2025
Collection: LCC:Medicine
LCC:Science
Subject Terms: Medicine, Science
More Details: Abstract The human mind, trying to perceive events coherently, creates the illusion of continuous time passage. Empirical evidence suggests distortions in subjectively perceived time flow associated with well-studied neural responses to sensory stimuli. This study aimed to investigate whether visually uncomfortable patterns, causing exceptionally strong brain activation, affect short time estimates and whether these estimates vary based on the overall reported sensory sensitivity and cortical excitability of individuals. Two experiments in virtual reality testing our assumptions at different levels of complexity of timed stimuli provided initial insight into the studied processes in highly controlled and realistic conditions. Data analysis results did not support our hypotheses, but showed that subjectively most visually uncomfortable simple patterns, i.e., achromatic gratings, cause more variable temporal judgments. Supposedly, this inaccuracy depends on the currently perceived visual comfort and thus the current visual system sensitivity, which cannot be satisfactorily derived from trait-based measures. The exploration of the effect of complex stimuli, i.e., virtual exteriors, suggested that their visual comfort does not affect time perception at all. Biological sex was an important variable across experiments, as males experienced temporal compression of stimuli compared to females. Neuroimaging research is needed for a deeper investigation of the origin of these results. Protocol registration: The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this Registered Report was in-principle accepted on 4 March 2024 prior to data collection for hypothesis testing. The accepted version of the manuscript can be found in the publicly available OSF repository at https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/K3YZE .
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2045-2322
Relation: https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-88778-8
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/f9a3c27363594c4cb76e47fd784582ec
Accession Number: edsdoj.f9a3c27363594c4cb76e47fd784582ec
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
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More Details
ISSN:20452322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-88778-8
Published in:Scientific Reports
Language:English