Abstract
The perception of time is a fundamental part of human experience. Recent research suggests that the experience of time emerges from emotional and interoceptive (bodily) states as processed in the insular cortex. Whether there is an interaction between the conscious awareness of interoceptive states and time distortions induced by emotions has rarely been investigated so far. We aimed to address this question by the use of a retrospective time estimation task comparing two groups of participants. One group had a focus on interoceptive states and one had a focus on exteroceptive information while watching film clips depicting fear, amusement and neutral content. Main results were that attention to interoceptive processes significantly affected subjective time experience. Fear was accompanied with subjective time dilation that was more pronounced in the group with interoceptive focus, while amusement led to a quicker passage of time which was also increased by interoceptive focus. We conclude that retrospective temporal distortions are directly influenced by attention to bodily responses. These effects might crucially interact with arousal levels. Sympathetic nervous system activation affecting memory build-up might be the decisive factor influencing retrospective time judgments. Our data substantially extend former research findings underscoring the relevance of interoception for the effects of emotional states on subjective time experience.
Highlights
During the last decade, the concept of embodiment has risen to become a key paradigm of interdisciplinary approaches from the areas of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience
We obtained a significant interaction, Emotional Content 6Group (F (2, 416) = 13.96; p,.001; g2 = .06; e = 1.00), indicating that exteroceptive vs. interoceptive focus had a differential effect on subjective time experience depending upon the emotional condition
A movie clip eliciting fear was accompanied with subjective time dilation that was more pronounced in the group with interoceptive focus
Summary
The concept of embodiment has risen to become a key paradigm of interdisciplinary approaches from the areas of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. William James [2] was one of the first to present a psychological theory linking viscero-afferent feedback to emotional experience. He suggested that a situation initiates specific visceral, vascular or somatic activities, such as changes of blood pressure and heart rate which are experienced and interpreted as emotions. Refinements of this model include Damasio’s notion of somatic markers, which represent involuntary changes in bodily states signaling stimulus significance to guide both emotional and cognitive behavior (e.g. decision-making) [3,4]. Interoception and awareness for interoceptive signals may modulate the relationship between bodily responses, affective and cognitive processes which is in accordance with the pivotal role in introduced concepts of embodied cognition
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