Talk:Time distortion

Editors Note

It is difficult to delineate 'time contraction' from 'time expansion' as authors of various papers seem to refer to this both as an increase in data content during the experience (time slowing down). (See On cannabis for time expansion meaning the same)

Even 'time acceleration' is contentious with this author claiming it to mean "living several lifetimes in an hour". --Graham (talk) 21:31, 15 January 2019 (CET)

Neurological Analysis

Time dilation is hypothesized to be due to prediction errors

"Another well-documented effect is known as ‘Time Dilation’ in which subjective time seems to slow down. A few minutes can subjectively be perceived as taking much longer. Here we postulate that subjective sensation of time is dependent on the amount of prediction error and possibly prediction updates the brain makes in order to minimize prediction error. This idea is based on Ulrich (2006) who discovered that the extent to which a stimulus can be predicted affects time perception, with unexpected stimuli perceived as longer. Similarly, Tse et al. (2004) found that a stimulus which stands out as different from all the others in a series appears to last longer than the other stimuli. An increase of prediction updates might cause the subjective feeling that more time has passed. This is similar to the common feeling that the first day of a journey to another country seems longer because it is filled with so many new experiences and so many prediction updates must happen in that day."

Microdosing LSD produces time dilation in suprasecond interval timing

"One of the most methodologically rigorous studies to date in this domain observed that the serotonin agonist psilocybin, which has similar characteristics to LSD (Nichols 2016), produced under-reproduction of long suprasecond intervals (4000–5000 ms, but not 1500–2500 ms) (Wittmann et al. 2007). This result implicates serotonin in suprasecond human interval timing (see also Rammsayer 1989; Wackermann et al. 2008), potentially through 5-HT2A-mediated inhibition of dopamine (De Gregorio et al. 2016), which is believed to play an important mechanistic role in the perception of time (Allman and Meck 2012; Coull et al. 2011; Matell and Meck 2004; Rammsayer 1999; Soares et al. 2016; Terhune et al. 2016b; Vatakis and Allman 2015; Wiener et al. 2011) (for a review, see Coull et al. 2011). Given the role of interval timing across a range of psychological functions (Allman et al. 2014; Matthews and Meck 2016; Merchant et al. 2013), distorted timing under LSD may contribute to, or underlie, broader cognitive and perceptual effects of this drug. Therefore, elucidating its impact on interval timing is likely to inform neurochemical models of interval timing as well as our broader understanding of the effects of LSD on cognition and perception."

"Here we show in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised trial with healthy older adults that microdose LSD produces a tendency to over-reproduce suprasecond intervals on a temporal reproduction task. Dose analyses further suggest potential linear effects of dose on temporal reproduction although over-reproduction tended to be most pronounced with a 10 μg dose. Alterations in temporal reproduction were restricted to intervals exceeding 1600 ms, suggesting that this effect may be interval-specific and restricted to suprasecond interval timing. Participants displayed a weak tendency to report greater subjective drug effects in the LSD conditions, hinting that participants were able to detect their assigned condition. However, LSD was not reliably associated with alterations in different self-reported dimensions of consciousness and the differential temporal reproduction performance across conditions was independent of self-reported drug effects. These results expand upon previous research showing that LSD modulates the perception of time (Aronson et al. 1959; Boardman et al. 1957; DeShon et al. 1952; Liechti et al. 2016; Speth et al. 2016) by indicating that LSD-mediating distorted timing can be independent of an altered state of consciousness. Interval timing appears to be particularly sensitive to the effects of psychedelics and thus represents a valuable method for measuring the psychological effects of these drugs (Wackermann et al. 2008; Wittmann et al. 2007)."

Temporal reproduction performance as a function of drug (placebo vs. LSD) (left) and dose (placebo vs. 5 vs. 10 vs. 20 μg) (right). Reproduction durations (top), beta coefficients from within-participant regression analyses of reproduction durations on stimulus intervals (insets), and reproduction variability (coefficient of variation; CV) (bottom). *p < .05, **p < .01

There exists different mechanisms to handle different intervals of time

"To date, alterations in time perception and performance in humans have been linked primarily to the dopamine system (O’Boyle et al., 1996; Rammsayer, 1999), specifically to the cortico-basal ganglia–thalamic–cortical loop representing the neuronal clock (Meck, 1996). Pharmacological studies on animals and humans also support the general hypothesis that fronto-striatal circuits are critical for temporal processing. Dopaminergic antagonists (like haloperidol) that affect the meso-striatal dopamine system disrupt temporal processing in healthy subjects (Rammsayer, 1999). Moreover, animal studies indicate that both dopaminergic agonists and antagonists influence timing processes, presumably by increasing and decreasing clock speed, respectively (Meck, 1996). Patients with Parkinson’s disease, who have decreased dopaminergic function in the basal ganglia, and particularly depleting input to the putamen, not only show deficits in motor timing but also in the discrimination of temporal intervals (O’Boyle et al., 1996; Hellström et al., 1997). Thus, intact dopamine neurotransmission within striatal and fronto-cortical sites is important for temporal processing, which is consistent with the notion that a cortico (SMA)-striato-thalamo-cortical system is involved in sensorimotor timing (Harrington et al., 2004)."

"The higher the clock rate (presumed to be dependent on the effective dopamine level) the better the temporal resolution will be and the longer subjective estimates of duration (Church, 1984; Matell and Meck, 2004; Harrington et al., 2004; but see Ivry, 1996, who proposes the dominant role of cerebellar mechanisms). Recently, the association of dopaminergic gene loci with endophenotypes of cognitive functioning such as attention and the speed in motor timing was shown (Reuter et al., 2005). Pharmacological manipulations of the serotonin system, applying 5-HT agonists and antagonists, however, have also been shown to affect duration discrimination abilities in humans. Duration discrimination of small intervals with a base duration of 50 ms even improved slightly (Rammsayer, 1989)."

"Indications exist that intervals below a time unit of approximately 2 to 3 seconds are processed differently from longer intervals (e.g. Woodrow, 1951; Fraisse, 1984; Pöppel, 1997; Wittmann, 1999). Typically, intervals up to 2 to 3 sec are reproduced accurately, whereas longer intervals tend to be underestimated (Kagerer et al., 2002). Subjects can accurately synchronize their motor actions to a sequence of tones presented with a frequency of approximately 1 to 2 Hz. The ability to synchronize these tones becomes more difficult with increasing inter-tone intervals and finally breaks down when intervals exceed durations of about 2 sec (Mates et al., 1994). Therefore, in the present study we aimed to investigate dose-dependent effects of psilocybin on temporal control of motor performance in sensorimotor tasks on time ranges below and above 2 to 3 seconds."

"Several studies on timing point to a temporal-integration interval of approximately 2 to 3 sec that can be found in perception and motor performance (for reviews, see Fraisse, 1984; Pöppel, 1997; Wittmann, 1999). Durations of temporal intervals in the temporalreproduction task are estimated precisely with intervals up to approximately 2 to 3 sec, whereas longer intervals are substantially underestimated (Kagerer et al., 2002). A temporal limitation of anticipatory planning is also observed in the sensorimotor synchronization task. The ability to synchronize accurately becomes substantially weaker when the inter-stimulus interval is longer than 2 sec (Mates et al., 1994). Our pharmacological approach contributes to these findings, as psilocybin mildly affects only those intervals of longer duration in each task. One of the few time perception studies under LSD in humans adds to our results (Mitrani et al., 1977): subjects did not show distortions in the ability to identify durations of visual stimuli in the range between 300 ms and 1 sec although they reported changes in the subjective passage of time"

"Converging evidence exists for the involvement of working memory in temporal reproduction. Processing of a secondary task that influences working-memory capacity interferes with the encoding and reproducing of durations in the domain of seconds (Fortin and Rousseau, 1998). Miyake et al. (2004) showed that a secondary working-memory task affected the accuracy of synchronization only with inter-stimulus intervals above 2 seconds. With inter-stimulus intervals below 2 seconds the memory task had no influence on performance. In a group of elderly subjects, working memory capacity correlated with performance in a temporal reproduction task with durations of 5 and 14 seconds (Baudouin et al., 2006). Frontal regions known to be closely linked with working-memory function, particularly dorsolateral and frontomedial cortices (Postle et al., 2000; Cabeza and Nyberg, 2000; Owen, 2000) are active during temporal reproductions of time intervals of a few seconds (Elbert et al., 1991; Volz et al., 2001; Monfort and Pouthas, 2003). Given the selective effect of psilocybin on the longer duration intervals in both the temporal reproduction and sensory synchronization tasks it seems that the temporal disturbance observed is induced through interference with cognitive processes like attention and working memory."

On cannabis and time expansion

"Aldrich (1944) observed a small change on the Seashore-Rhythm Scale, a result that was replicated with higher changes by Reed (1974). Music as a multi-dimensional auditory Zeitgestalt (Zuckerkandl 1963) takes place in time. Melges et al. (1970, 1971) explained cannabis-induced effects on time perception as a speeding up of the internal clock experienced as time expansion (see Tart 1971:89ff). Time expansion may temporarily allow increased insight into the “space between the notes” (Whiteley 1992). This might help experienced individuals (Becker 1953) perceive sound structure more effectively. "

"The altered perception of time might be responsible. A typical effect of cannabis is that time is “expanded.” Time seems to pass more quickly than shown by the clock (Jones and Stone 1970; Mathew et al. 1998; Tart 1971). This effect is possibly a key to understanding the experience of an unobstructed flow of information. Within the “broader” measurement units (Fachner 2000a) of the aforementioned metaphoric “auditory rubber ruler,” progressively smaller units seem possible. (...)

There is a feeling of time being stretched or expanded or perceived as slowed down or sped up. Ninety percent of 151 participants of Charles Tart’s study, “On Being Stoned,” agreed with the following statement: “Time passes very slowly; things go on for the longest time (e.g., one side of a record seems to play for hours)” (Tart 1971). In most experiments, stoned subjects failed to reproduce a correct metric counting of time intervals, and tended to expand the estimated units. Jones reported that a 15-second time interval was expanded to a mean of 16.7 seconds, with deviation up to 19 seconds estimated under the influence of oral THC, while being counted correctly in normal state (Jones and Stone 1970). A reverse relationship also occurs. Melges et al. said a speeding-up of the inner clock was responsible for expanded and slowed perception of chronological time and for producing temporal disintegration failures. “A subject becomes less able to integrate past, present and future, his awareness becomes more concentrated on present events; these instances, in turn, are experienced as prolonged or timeless when they appear isolated from the continual progression of time,” they concluded (Melges et al. 1971:566). This brings to mind some of the counter-culture focus on a “here and now” feeling."

"cannabis changes the intensity graduation of sensory data (Fachner 2002b). This appears plausible if we look at the distribution of the cannabinoid receptors recently detected in the human brain (Joy et al. 1999). In those regions of midbrain and cerebellum that mainly coordinate feelings of intensity, and selective temporal and motor processes, there is a proportionally higher agglomeration of cannabinoid receptors. Another brain imaging study of time perception correlated cannabis and changes of blood flow in the cerebellum (Mathew et al. 1998). Cannabis consumption stimulates the activity of such receptors temporarily, and the functional consequence is a changed graduation of musical parameters. Obviously, these processes are far more complex than described here, but a stimulation of cannabinoid receptors may explain the changes discovered above."

"Weakening of hippocampal censorship function and overload competing of neuronal conceptualizations during information selection (Emrich et al. 1991) might be connected to cannabis-induced prolonged time estimation and intensity scaling. This metric reference promotes functions of a divergent cognitive strategy to overlook the Gestalten of musical holonomic symbolization on one hand and to lose track (Webster 2001) on the other, because convergent perception of sequential information parts is reduced. Mathew reported a cannabis-induced change of time sense CBF correlated with changes of cerebellum blood flow (Mathew et al. 1998). Cerebellum is associated with movement organization and time-keeping functions."

"Comparing pre/post-THC-music, differences (p<0.025) were found in the right fronto-temporal cortex on θ, and on α in the left occipital cortex (IMAGE_11.GIF). During pre-THC-music listening, θ-% increased but decreased more in post-THC-music than during rest. In both temporal lobes, θ-amplitudes decreased during post-THC-music as well (IMAGE_10.GIF). Several studies noted observed music-induced changes in the right temporal fronto-temporal lobe, but with varying frequency ranges (26, 28-32). Even results of dichotic listening indicate changes in the right hemisphere (33, 34). Alterations in the temporal lobe EEG might represent changes in the hippocampus region as well. The hippocampus is rich in CBR (cannabinoid receptors) (35) and has a strong impact on memory functions and information selection. Weakening of hippocampal censorship function and overload competing of neuronal conceptualizations during information selection (36) might be connected to THC-induced prolonged time estimation and intensity scaling. THC-induced sensory information flooding might be processed in a more effective manner. Time expansion might induce a changed metric frame of reference (10), which leads to a different cognitive style of holonomic perception of memory retrieval (8). This might enable musicians to get temporarily increased insight into the ‘space between the notes’ (4) and to handle rhythmic patterns with more sophistication. A skilled and trained musician might benefit from “losing track” (8) during an improvisation and even while playing composed structures. This way of reducing irrelevant information offers spontaneous rearrangement of a piece, vivid performance with enlarged emotional intensity scaling, and the opening of improvisational possibilities by breaking down preconceptions and restructuring habituated listening and acting patterns. It seems that this change of auditory perspective in perceiving musical Gestalten (8) is mediated throughout an extension of auditory metric scaling during internal sound staging of music perceived. Listening to a record via headphones becomes a wider 3-dimensional moving soundscape, there seem to be “broader spatial relations between sound sources”(9). Expanded auditory metric units promote a frame of reference that seems to fit more precisely into an audio-visual way of perceiving acoustic relations. The drummer Robin Horn said (1), “it (pot) does create a larger vision, and if that’s the case, then it would apply to your instrument because the more you see, the more you can do.” Changed left occipital and right temporal EEG activity might represent a change of auditory perspective on musical acoustics. These issues have been discussed more intensively elsewhere (3, 10, 23)."

More evidence for endogenous neurochemical systems that regulate this effect

"Moreover, psychedelics may specifically activate an endogenous neurochemical system that regulates time perception (Dawson, 2004). If this is the case, and there is certainly ample evidence to suggest it is (e.g., Baruss & Vletas, 2003; Dawson, 2001; Hayes, 2000; Melges, Tinklenberg, Hollister, & Gillespie, 1970; Shanon, 2001; Strassman, 2001), the study of this temporal neurochemical system is critical. Phenomena such as aging, mental illness, and drug-induced changes in time perception may all have this system in common (Dawson, 2004). Because psychedelics seem to tap quickly and directly into this system, they may be one of the most suitable technologies for its study."

"Cannabinoid, serotonin, dopamine, and opiate receptor systems are associated with altering time consciousness and included in a neurochemical system that regulates the perception of time."

"Extending Strassman’s (2001) proposal, it is suggested here that time and the way it is regulated neurochemically is responsible for the perception of interpersonal boundaries. These boundaries include age, gender, family relationships across generations, the boundary between life and death, and time pressure (or sense of being busy). When these boundaries are transcended with the use of psychedelics, we encounter fusion of self with other. It is here that one person’s consciousness may become temporally located at overlapping levels of reality."

Psychedelic effects can be produced by sensory overload in about 40% of normal subjects. Subjects tend to experience time as "speeded up" in sensory overload and "slowed down" in sensory deprivation as compared to the normal control condition

"The potential for SD[sensory deprivation] to produce alterations in consciousness (eg, greater visual imagery, hallucinations, time distortion, etc) is well recognized, but to date little is experimentally known about the ability for SO to do likewise. So far, with the experimental paradigm employed, we have found in fact that SO[sensory overload] may produce mild to profound distortions in reality testing or "psychedelic" effects in about 40% of the normal subjects. For purposes of illustration, several verbatim excerpts from interviews conducted immediately after exposure to SO are presented."

Addicts continue to have temporal disturbances

"The main goal of this study was to identify unusual, yet essential lived time experiences of people addicted to multiple drugs when in a sober state. Eight of the clients comprising the study sample experienced difficulties following time in an organized fashion and seven sought to accelerate it."

Neural substrates of time perception

"In particular, highly impulsive person process time differently, i.e. they overestimate duration. Delays are experienced as too high of a cost, which becomes apparent in premature responses, a decreased tolerance to delays, poor foresight and the selection of relatively smaller rewards that can be consumed earlier (Rubia et al., 2009). (...) Drugdependent persons, who show stronger impulsive behavior in decision making, score significantly lower on a future orientation scale and their future perspective is less extended (Petry et al., 1998; Smart, 1968)."

"Cocaine and methamphetamine dependent patients participating in an inpatient alcohol and drug treatment program overestimated the duration of a 53 s interval, estimates that were mediated by higher self-reported impulsivity (Wittmann et al., 2007). Sleepdeprived subjects, compared to when they were well rested, discounted delayed rewards more strongly and under-produced as well as under-reproduced time intervals of multiple seconds duration (Reynolds and Schiffbauer, 2004). Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show an altered timing performance in several domains of time perception and at the same time show stronger discounting of delayed rewards (Barkley et al., 2001a; Smith et al., 2002), findings that have led some investigators to propose that impulsiveness can essentially be described as a deficit in temporal processing (Rubia et al., 2009)."

"While there is evidence suggesting that the processing of duration relies on the integrity of the whole brain (Coslett et al., 2009), specific neural models have been proposed for the perception of time in the milliseconds-toseconds range. Among these models are the coincidence detection model using oscillatory signals in cortico-striatal circuits (Matell and Meck, 2004), generalized magnitude processing for time, space and number in the right posterior parietal cortex (Bueti and Walsh, 2009), event timing and temporal prediction in the cerebellum (Ivry et al., 2002), working memory related integration in the right prefrontal cortex (Lewis and Miall, 2006), as well as the integration of selfand body processes in the anterior insula (Craig, 2008, 2009a). Other investigators assume memory-loss components as intrinsic features in theoretical models of time perception (Staddon, 2005; Wackermann and Ehm, 2006), or propose that the amount of energy spent during cognitive processing defines the subjective experience of duration (Eagleman and Pariyadath, 2009). In a recent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we reported that activation in the dorsal posterior insular cortex was linked to the perception of time in a duration reproduction task using intervals of 9 and 18 s (Wittmann et al., 2010b). Neural timeactivity curves showed that activation in the posterior insula increased linearly during the encoding interval of the task (i.e., during presentation of the tone that had to be temporally reproduced). A similar linear increase in activation was seen during the reproduction interval of the task in the anterior insula, inferior frontal and medial frontal cortices bilaterally. We suggested that this accumulator-like activity in the posterior insula during the encoding interval might signify an integration of body signals over time that could be used to represent duration." etc There is a lot of brain scans on the interpretation of time in this paper (also it links stimulant compulsive dosing to time compression cost analysis)

Meditation lengthens the perception of time (with neuroimaging)

"These findings are accompanied by neuroimaging studies showing that among many other regions the insular cortex is activated in time perception in the sub- as well as supra-second range (Bueti & Macaluso, 2011; Livesey, Wall, & Smith, 2007; Pollatos, Laubrock et al., 2014; Pollatos, Yeldesbay et al., 2014; for meta-analyses, see Lewis & Miall, 2003; Wiener, Turkeltaub, & Coslett, 2010). The insular cortex is discussed as the primary interoceptive cortex integrating body signals over time as received in the dorsal posterior insula (Craig, 2015). A representation of homeostatic feelings would be built in the anterior insula which generates an experience of the emotional self at a given moment (Craig, 2009b; Critchley, Wiens, Rotshtein, Öhman, & Dolan, 2004; Seth, 2013). The insular cortex as part of the saliency network is also discussed as being involved in cognitive control and attentional processes (Menon & Uddin, 2010). Thereafter, the same brain network would underlie attentional control, body awareness, and time perception. Accordingly, this adds to the idea that ‘‘attention to time’’ in essence means ‘‘attention to bodily signals’’ as implicated in the above integration of the attentional gate model within a neurophysiological framework.

In two studies, the posterior and anterior insula seemed specifically implicated in the experience of temporal intervals with several seconds’ duration (Wittmann, 2013). In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study using temporal intervals of 3, 9 and 18 s, activation in the dorsal posterior insular cortex was linked to the temporal encoding of duration. Activation in this region increased with increasing interval length and peaked at the end of the interval (Wittmann, Simmons, Aron, & Paulus, 2010). When these intervals had to be reproduced as indicated by a button press, a similar linear increase of activation was seen in the anterior insula as well as regions of the frontal cortex which peaked shortly before the actual button press. A subsequent study replicated these findings with a different group of subjects (Wittmann et al., 2011). A single-case study with an epileptic patient with a focal lesion in the right anterior insula complements these neuroimaging findings (Monfort et al., 2014). The patient performed with severe distortions in the reproduction of multiple-second durations – an impairment that was not observed in the other tested epileptic patients without damage to the insular cortex. Moreover, neuroimaging studies in humans have repeatedly shown that the anterior insula, besides the striatum, is involved in explicit temporal prediction and expectations of future negative or positive events (Simmons et al., 2013; Tanaka et al., 2004; Tomasi, Wang, Studentsova, & Volkow, 2014; Wittmann, Lovero, Lane, & Paulus, 2010).

However, it is only fair to mention that regarding the question of localization and mechanisms – ‘‘where’’ and ‘‘how’’ in the brain time is represented – no agreement can be found in the literature; too many very different models exist (Grondin, 2010; Hancock & Block, 2012; Merchant, Harrington, & Meck, 2013; Wittmann & van Wassenhove, 2009). To some degree this variation of conceptualizations can be explained by relating them to different time scales (Buhusi & Meck, 2005; Wittmann, 2009, 2013) and to the nature of the timing processes being explicit or implicit (Coull & Nobre, 2008). Related to the sub-second time range, temporal processing may be distributed among different structures relying on modality-specific mechanisms rather than on a central timing region (Mauk & Buonomano, 2004). Moreover, since many different cognitive processes contribute to the perception of time such as attention, working memory, and decision making, this constant co-activation of all processes increases the difficulty in identifying the neural basis of time perception (Meck, 2005; Pouthas & Perbal, 2004; Wittmann, 2009)."

"The first studies testing time perception before vs. after mindfulness-oriented meditation practice are indicative of a prolongation of subjective duration, either after repeated sessions of mindfulness meditation over the course of weeks or directly after a meditation session (Berkovich-Ohana, Glicksohn, & Goldstein, 2011; Droit-Volet, Fanget, & Dambrun, 2015; Kramer, Weger, & Sharma, 2013; Sucala & David, 2013). These results can be discussed within the framework of an increased (more mindful) interoceptive awareness after extensive meditation experience or as transiently, i.e. state-induced, directly after a meditation session. It has been shown how self-reported regulatory aspects of interoception in daily life, i.e. the ability to regulate distress by attention to body sensations, are enhanced after extended contemplative practice regarding the ‘‘body scan’’ and ‘‘breath meditation’’ (Bornemann, Herbert, Mehling, & Singer, 2015). Also, the measurement of objective indices of body related judgment, i.e. tactile sensitivity and accuracy, reveal a better performance after body-centered meditation (Fox et al., 2012; Mirams, Poliakoff, Brown, & Lloyd, 2013). In general, individuals with long-term practice of mindfulness meditation are more sensitive to inner movements and impulses which are important for decision-making and action control (Jo, Hinterberger, Wittmann, & Schmidt, 2015; Jo, Wittmann, Borghardt, Hinterberger, & Schmidt, 2014). As elaborated above, an increased awareness of the (bodily) self would lead to a relative expansion of duration (Wittmann & Schmidt, 2014). In accordance with the aforementioned theoretical framework of self-regulation, which has shown to be accompanied with a prolongation of felt duration (Vohs & Schmeichel, 2003), mindfulness can be described as systematic mental training that fosters the development of meta-awareness of one self and the ability to effectively self-regulate behavior (Vago & Silbersweig, 2012)."

Psychedelic time effects analysis

Nichols, D. E. (2016). Psychedelics. Pharmacological reviews, 68(2), 264-355.

Possible time reversal paper (Fig 8.)

Restructuring consciousness –the psychedelic state in light of integrated information theory

How various substances influence our brain's receptors' (perception of time)

Altered Perceptions: How Various Substances Influence Our Perception of Time

Chaos theory brainwave energy interpretation of time

Brainwaves, neural networks, and ionic structures: Biophysical model for altered states of consciousness

‘Time’ differs in various domains, such as (i) physical time (e.g., clock time), (ii) biological time, such as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and (iii) the perceptual rate of time.

"The various forms of time are as follows (Vimal & Davia, 2008):

(A) Physical time: This is physical clock time. The Planck time is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units, which is the time it would take a photon traveling at the speed of light in a vacuum to cross a distance equal to the Planck length; it is about 5.39 x 10-16 seconds; however, it has not been measured yet. Images of electrons leaving atoms were produced by short pulses of laser light and recorded within 100 attoseconds (10-16 seconds); this is the shortest time measured so far.

(B) Biological time: Although all brain areas can be considered as biological clocks, the suprachiasmatic nucleus is the master molecular clock (Vimal, Pandey-Vimal, Vimal, Stopa, Renshaw, Vimal, & Harper, 2009); it is measured in msec.

(C) Perceptual rate of time: This is psychophysically measured in cycles per second (Hz) using luminance critical flicker frequency (CFF). It varies from 24 Hz in dim light and 60 Hz in bright light for normal humans to 80 Hz for Buddhist monks during meditation to 300 Hz for the honeybee. Color fusion frequencies are lower than CFF. Time can be integrated up to 160 msec for luminance stimuli, whereas integration time is longer for color stimuli. When we view a sinusoidally flickering light with temporal frequency (TF) above CFF, the associated experience is invariant in a sense that we do not perceive any flicker and light appears like steady light. In other words, if we start from TF = 0 Hz to CFF, (i) we perceive first steady light at 0 Hz, (ii) then flicker-perception increases with increase of TF to maximum value at peak-TF and (iii) then flicker-perception decrease as we increase TF and (iv) eventually reaches flicker-perception of zero at CFF. However, CFF depends on internal and external context, i.e., it would be possible to alter the predictions of the values of peak-TF and CFF, but the above 4 steps will occur. It would be interesting to perform experiments related to the estimations of time at the above 4 crucial points. Our prediction is that phenomenal time (defined below) will be different (perhaps faster) at peak-TF than that at TF >CFF. Note that we perceive maximum flicker at peak-TF and no flicker at CFF.

(D) Relative positions in time: These can be distinguished in two ways: (i) Each position is either Past, Present, or Future. This distinction varies continuously. (ii) Each position can be earlier or later than other positions. This distinction is permanent.

(E) Cyclic and linear nature of time: Time can be cyclic (day ↔ night) or linear (future → present → past).

(F) Subjective passage of time can be shorter or longer than physical time depending on the state of mind. Phenomenal time is defined as the subjective experience of time.2 It seems to speed up as we grow older, slow down in crisis, and slowing towards stopping, in some cases, such as at death, in near-death experience, meditation, and psychedelic drug use (Vimal & Davia, 2008). Furthermore, rather than focusing on the ability to detect change, insight into phenomenal time may come by focusing on the inability to detect change such as in CFF. Every phenomenal time may be an ‘occasion of experience’ or SE, for example, a Buddhist Monk who has CFF of 80 Hz may have SE every 12.5 msec, whereas a subject who has CFF of 60 Hz may have SE every 16.7 msec."

Additional marijuana time distortion paper with elaboration

Temporal disintegration and depersonalization during marihuana intoxication.

Nonspecific studies (just mentions time distortion for the substance)

• Journey through the K-hole: Phenomenological aspects of ketamine use
• Methoxetamine – a novel recreational drug with potent hallucinogenic properties
• Phenomenology, Structure, and Dynamic of Psychedelic States
• The Mushroom Psilocybin with Psychedelic Properties
• Phenomenology of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine Use: A Thematic Analysis
• Voice of the Psychonauts: Coping, Life Purpose, and Spirituality in Psychedelic Drug Users
• Flashbacks: Recurrent Intrusive Images After the Use of LSD
• The Psychopharmacology of Hallucinogens
• 25B-NBOMe and its precursor 2C-B: modern trends and hidden dangers
• Delta-8- and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol Comparison in man by oral and intravenous administration
• Adverse effects of cannabis
• Socio-cultural transformation and drug dependence in youth

Trip report

Non-linear time? Any experience to share?

"At one point I lost my perception of time as linear, experiencing it as a mash-up of interconnected 'moments', and I was seeing some Escher-like lizard motifs superimposed over everything in my field of vision such that they were essentially indistinguishable from the actual, real appearance of whatever I was looking at. I've never quite experienced anything like it since." - A friend on Amanitas

It's one of the only experience reports I've seen with time becoming non-linear, alongside the specifics of some DMT trips. Some limited exploration with psychedelics and maybe dissociatives has given me a strong interest in the way our mind perceives time, but it seems the common range of experiences doesn't reveal insight as fascinating as this report with recollections of "moments" that don't follow each other but instead connect to multiple others, I hope I experience this someday -- yokohama