Anticipation of aversive visual stimuli lengthens perceived temporal duration.

ABSTRACT: Subjective estimates of elapsed time are sensitive to the fluctuations in an emotional state. While it is well known that dangerous and threatening situations, such as electric shocks or loud noises, are perceived as lasting longer than safe events, it remains unclear whether anticipating a threatening event speeds up or slows down subjective time and what defines the direction of the distortion. We examined whether the anticipation of uncertain visual aversive events resulted in either underestimation or overestimation of perceived duration. The participants did a temporal bisection task, where they estimated durations of visual cues relative to previously learnt long and short standard durations. The colour of the to-be-timed visual cue signalled either a 50% or 0% probability of encount

SUBMITTER: Harjunen VJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9090676 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature