Bayes, time perception, and relativity: The central role of hopelessness

Abstract

Time judgement and time experience are distinct elements of time perception. It is known that time experience tends to be slow, or dilated, when depressed, but there is less certainty or clarity concerning how depression affects time judgement. Here, we use a Bayesian Prediction Error Minimisation (PEM) framework called 'distrusting the present' as an explanatory and predictive model of both aspects of time perception. An interval production task was designed to probe and modulate the relationship between time perception and depression. Results showed that hopelessness, a symptom of severe depression, was associated with the ordering of interval lengths, reduced overall error, and dilated time experience. We propose that 'distrusting the future' is accompanied by 'trusting the present', leading to the experiences of time dilation when depressed or hopeless. Evidence was also found to support a relative difference model of how hopelessness dilates, and arousal accelerates, the rate of experienced time.

Systema Temporis: A time-based dimensional framework for consciousness and cognition

“…Importantly, this distinction also applies to temporal structure given the dissociation between functional moments of the salience network, mental presence of the central executive network, and experienced moment associated with the default mode network (Kent, 2019;Montemayor & Wittmann, 2014;Wittmann, 2011). They are also dissociated in Bayesian terms related to the sensory likelihood (salience), prior (central executive), and posterior (default mode) distributions and their relation to time perception, attention, and consciousness (Hohwy, 2012;Kent, Van Doorn, Hohwy, & Klein, 2019;.…”

“…Hierarchical Bayesian perceptual inference requires the weighting and integration of sensory (i.e., likelihood distribution) and memory (i.e., prior distribution) information to decide upon the most likely perceptual observation (i.e., posterior distribution). While experimental modelling shows promise in terms of emotion regulation in depression (Kent, Van Doorn, Hohwy, et al, 2019), the 'distrusting the present' framework has only been tested in reference to temporal flow within the brief timescales of conscious experience (i.e., 1 second). However, the Bayesian approach could be generalised to contrast the relative weighting and integration of LTM and LLM, for example, to test the temporal flow of self-consciousness over much longer timeframes (i.e., days, weeks, and months).…”

From relativistic time dilation to psychological time perception: an approach and model, driven by the theory of relativity, to combine the physical time with the time perceived while experiencing different situations.

“…Approaches have already been made to give a relativistic dimension to brain mechanisms (Buhusi and Meck, 2009;Kent et al, 2019). The approach presented in this paper push further this view by formulating equations that could be used to approximate the time dilation between different situations.…”

“…From these models, the notion of subjective time emerged (Thönes and Stocker, 2019), which goes in pair with the assumption of the existence of an internal clock (Treisman, 1963;Church, 1984;Fayolle et al, 2015). Some models relate the psychology of time to physics theories (Buhusi and Meck, 2009;Kent et al, 2019;Ghaderi, 2019). In these latter models, ratios are used to interpret the acceleration or deceleration of time such as the ratio between hopelessness and the arousal (Kent et al, 2019) or the ratio between the entropy inside the brain and the entropy outside the brain (Ghaderi, 2019).…”

“…Some models relate the psychology of time to physics theories (Buhusi and Meck, 2009;Kent et al, 2019;Ghaderi, 2019). In these latter models, ratios are used to interpret the acceleration or deceleration of time such as the ratio between hopelessness and the arousal (Kent et al, 2019) or the ratio between the entropy inside the brain and the entropy outside the brain (Ghaderi, 2019). These ratios behave similarly to the Lorentz factor used to calculate time dilation in Special Relativity (Einstein, 1905b).…”