AI Article Synopsis
- A recent study investigates why depressed individuals perceive time inconsistently, experiencing slow passage in the present while simultaneously judging short durations as longer and long durations as shorter.
- The study reanalyzes four out of six original studies and finds that time perception changes from an initial slow dilation to a quicker acceleration as intervals get longer, particularly influenced by one's mood.
- The research proposes that these variations in time perception are linked to brain networks related to memory and mood, with implications for understanding how depressive states affect temporal judgement, but it only covers a limited number of studies.
Article Abstract
Background: A recent meta-analysis left open a significant question regarding altered time perception in depression: Why do depressed people overproduce short durations and under-produce longer durations if their present experience is that time flows slowly? Experience and judgement of time do not seem to accord with one another.
Analysis: By excluding two of the six studies on methodological grounds from a previous meta-analysis of medium-length interval productions, and re-analysing the remaining four studies, the present paper finds that subjective time accelerates from initial dilation within present experience (approximately 1 s duration) to subsequent acceleration within working memory (approximately 30 s duration) when depressed.
Proposals: It is proposed that depressive time dilation and acceleration refer to the default mode and central executive networks, respectively. The acceleration effect is suggested to occur due to mood congruency between long intervals, boredom, and depression. This mood congruency leads to the automatic recall of intrusive, negative, and non-specific autobiographical long-term memories used to judge intervals from previous experience. Acceleration in working memory then occurs according to the contextual change model of duration estimation.
Limitations: The meta-analysis is limited to four studies only, but provides a potential link between time experience and judgement within the same explanatory model.
Conclusions: Similarities between psychological time dilation/acceleration and physical time dilation/acceleration are discussed.
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Source |
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.02.003 | DOI Listing |
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