Does Time Slow Down in a Crisis?

In The Matrix, hero Neo wins his battles when time slows in the simulated world. In our real world, accident victims often report a similar slowing of time as they slip unavoidably towards disaster.

"Does the experience of slow motion really happen, or does it only seem to have happened in retrospect? The answer is critical for understanding how time is represented in the brain." That is the question being asked by several American scientists who, for science, decided that jumping off a 45-meter high platform would be a good method of discovery.

Their study focuses around how the brain deals with emergencies, and whether time really does slow down, as Hollywood would have us believe.

There is a common thread among victims of car crashes, and other such disasters, that time seemed to slow down. It is as if time all of a sudden decided to allow you to view everything that is happening in minute and horrifying detail.

David Eagleman, an Assistant Professor of neuroscience and psychology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, headed up the experiment. "It's the scariest thing I have ever done," he said. "I knew it was perfectly safe, and I also knew that it would be the perfect way to make people feel as though an event took much longer than it actually did."

The researchers had attempted to acquire the same results from roller coasters and other frightening amusement park rides, but there was still that element of safety. So they took the next step, Suspended Catch Air Device diving. With no ropes at all, participants fall backwards off a platform 45 meters high, and fall at a rate of some 112 kilometers an hour, in a fall that only lasts 3 seconds.

However, one of the results of the test found that each participant thought that their fall had lasted 36% longer than it actually took. The second half of the experiment focused around a device they had designed called the "perceptual chronometer." A watch like device that straps to your wrist, it flicks through numbers at a high speed, normally undecipherable.

Their belief was that, if the brain did speed up due to adrenaline during a crisis, then the numbers would have slowed down enough to read; or, in reality, the brain would have sped up enough to read the numbers.

The experiment found that none of the participants were able to read the numbers during their fall (though whether anyone would be able to focus on a watch during a three second 112 k/ph fall is another question altogether).

What is actually happening, according to Eagleman’s study, is as a result of your memory. According to the study, the part of the brain called the amygdale becomes more active, and lays down extra sets of memories that go along with the actual events.

"In this way, frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories," Eagleman explained. "And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took."

Eagleman added this illusion "is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you're a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when you're older, you've seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by."

And though the results of this study can lead towards disorders linked with timing, such as schizophrenia, Eagleman believes "it's really about understanding the virtual reality machinery that we're trapped in," Eagleman told LiveScience. "Our brain constructs this reality for us that, if we look closely, we can find all these strange illusions in. The fact that we're now seeing this with how we perceive time is new."

Posted by Josh Hill

Related Galaxy posts:

The “Two-Commander” Brain
Vulcans Nixed: You Can’t Have Logic Without Emotion
The Consumer Paradox: Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem and Materialism Goes Hand in Hand
The Big Brain & the Pursuit of Happiness
Mysteries of the Human Brain
Are Our Brains Hard-wired to Follow the “Golden Rule”?
Tomorrow's People

 

Links:

http://www.livescience.com/health/071211-time-slow.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/12/2117276.htm

Comments

[KS Augustin]

No, I don't think I agree. When I was falling off my tall ladder one day, I really did note everything in minute detail, right down to figuring out where and how I'd most probably land ***and adjusting my posture as a result***. If the time dilation was purely a function of memory, then I couldn't have adjusted my posture...which I most consciously did. The adjustment was quite significant, as I landed on hands and knees, on either side of the edge of one of the ladder's legs, and thus prevented some painful injury. This was through planning that occurred **during** the fall, not a rich memory after it. I'm convinced of it.

[P Reed]

I agree with Augustin. I have been in one surfing and one bicycle accident that I remember talking to myself as to how the accident was unfolding and what to do to stay alive. Both accidents put me in the hospital. As the accidents occurred time slowed down in my mind's eye, but it was just a matter of seconds. After the accidents, I immediate told my friends how it seemed time slowed down. My head hit the street 3 times, and before each hit, my mind said, "get ready for the first hit, get ready for the second hit, and get ready for the third hit...now get ready for the spin" as my bike slid down the street. The extra part of the story is that someone was bracing my head...my personal angel was busy that day during my 23 mph bicycle wipeout going downhill.

[Reboot]

Interesting article, good comments. Below is another to add to this. Sorry for the long post.

I've had this time-slowing effect happen to me on several occasions but realize, over the years, that many people react differently to crisis.

Once, with a coffee in one hand, I leaned back on a chair way too much and it began to tip back. I knew I was going to fall. Time slowed and I processed the info. I remember making a ton of decisions and in the right order.

1. Is there a way I can keep from falling - NO, I'm done for..
2. Can I avoid bodily damage? -Yes, need to position myself.
3. If coffee spills, I'll have to clean this up.
4. I can keep the coffee from spilling if I do this...
5. Position body for the fall, extend left arm to place coffee cup on table
6. Coffee saved, I saved myself some work! Yeah!
7. Noticed that I did not spill coffee as I layed it on table. Great! No muss, no fuss.

I made a conscious effort to keep cup even and did not slam on table.

At this point, I'm about half-way down on my fall (chair tipping backwards)

7. Turn body and extend right arm.
8. Yes! Caught the floor with my right hand which I used to catch me.

I was able to put the weight of my body on my right arm/hand to keep the rest of me from hitting the floor. I remember the chair slamming hard in these final nano-seconds. During the whole process, I was willing to sacrifice the coffee in order to save myself.

This is a mild example (a few others related to falling, positoning yourself, etc). It's interesting to note that while time slowed for me, I could still hear the reactions of people in the background in real-time.

This has also happened a few more times during moments of crisis - in two cases I was playing the role of the savior (not willing to share details of that info here but some general info).

What's interesting in both these cases is that everything I needed to do came running to the forefront of my brain. There was no thinking... Just instant, logical knowledge.

In one case, medical info was necessary and I remembered everything I needed instantly (including the right order). Funny thing about the medical case was the I was able to cull info from various TV shows I had watched over the years - but only the selected parts. It was later that I realized where the info came from though the actions necessary played like a video in my mind as I did what I needed to, including seeing a shot of an x-ray. There was a slow down effect here because of the urgency.

In another, it had to do with an electrical fire in a place flooded with water. Many details here. The info I needed had come from school and conversations held over the years. In this second case and to point out how people react differently to events, one of the folks there started crying and screaming hysterically. Another stood shocked and motionless - brainlock occurred.

In this second case, I had to act very quickly but also very logically. There was no time slow down effect in this second case because it wasn't necessary but I did need to act fast.

In the end, I think... this time slow down effect is a strong part of our survival instinct but used only when necessary.

In case 1: Time slowed down and everything was a physical reaction based on survival decisions. No old memories but new decisions based solely on the moment.

In case 2: Time slowed down and everything was mental retrieval system. Research and action in an instant.

In case 3: Time did NOT slow down but the mental retrieval was essential. If time slowed down it was at the initial stage where I had to take a snapshot of the situation and quickly surmise the various dangers.

In all time slow down cases (where the brain needs to work differently - which makes me wonder how long something like this can last), I remember the details clearly to this day - which is something the article fails to mention (ie, how we achieve better mental awareness as a result of the various mental/emotional factors working together).

So while previous memories may be accessed, they are done so in a profoundly different and enhanced way.

[CosaMostro]

I'm interested in the way time is processed in memory. I wonder about waking to a sudden noise "after" dreaming a storyline that anticipates and contextualizes that noise.

It's unlikely this phenomenon is explained by unconscious prescience. It seems more likely that the brain imprints this memory of a dream on the part of your internal timeline that precedes the noise.

In the same way, you could react reflexively in mid-fall or mid crash, and retroactively footnote those actions with your "conscious" decisions to adjust your posture or prepare for impact.

In either case, I think the issue at question is *when* your memories are "written." The assumption that memory is formed at the moment when the event is actually happening is highly suspect. More likely, the brain is making decisions about *what* to write to memory after an imperceptible, but not insignificant time lag.

[angelo bellomo]

1) We know that time dilation happens as you approach the speed of light.

2) When our sun's motion and the galaxy's motion are going the same direction, we are already travelling 330 miles per second. (1/1000 the speed of light).

3) speed and increased frequency of brain transmissions in an emergency open the potential for certain structures within the brain to undergo time dilation.

[CosaMostro]

I want some of whatever Angelo's smoking.

[no]

This is a stupid question. Time is constant. It doesn't slow down in a time of crisis. Otherwise the entire world would be experienced in slow motion, because someone somewhere is always in some form of crises. And to suggest that it is "localized" so that those experiencing it are in some sort of time-slowing-space-bubble while everyone externally experiences time at a regular pace is just retarded.

I hope no grant money was invested in this idiocy. I can solve the question of "does time SEEM to go by slower in a time of crises?" with a resounding "yes, it does". But perception is not reality.

Fools.

[no]

"I'm convinced of it."

Oh, well, there we go then. This guy is convinced of it. That's all the proof we need. I know a guy who is convinced of aliens and another who is convinced there is a god. Therefore, both are true. Because they're convinced of it. That's like, the second step of the scientific method. "be convinced of it". Yep.

[Stewy]

I read an article online that shreds this David Eagleman study. It seems that that the perception of time (that is what's being talked about here, CosaMostro, not actual time itself)slowing down during an event is real, at least as far as the evidence against it from Eagleman has been invalidated. So people like KS Augustin and P Reed would seem to be right - still.

It's a long read, but worth it - http://science-community.sciam.com/blog-entry/Aet-Radals-Blog/Duration-Dilation-Flawed-Frightening-Experiment/300006227&

[Alex]

Had two experiences involving the sensation of time slowing down.
In the first I was riding a light motorbike along the shore and hit a bump that sent me in the air unexpectedly.I remember clearly scaning the seen in mid air and deciding to jump of to avoid being crushed by the bike on impact.In the second incident I was peeing from the stern of a sailboat(standing on the last step above the water) at night.I was alone (the other person asleep) and we were far out at sea .Had my left arm wrapped around the ladder that was folded and secured but the boat rolled and when i leaned against it the strap opened.In that instant my reflex was to lean back but simultanously i realised that i might slip into the water anyway and bang my head falling. so instead i knew the only sure thing was to hold on to ladder no matter what and let myself fall with it.then i climbed back on board.I am convinced that in such situations our perceptions and thinking are somehow augmented to give us the edge.

[no name]

No that is wrong, time doesn't slow down, the person in danger speeds up, which is the cause of adrenaline also known as epinephrine which is a substance that allows you to work faster, as it can speed up brain work and body. So if you time slows down you are wrong. I personally had moments like that, but it is the work of our livers which contain adrenal glands and that is where is all comes from. Getting in situations like that is bad. Although it is good for cardiac problems it is also bad.

[battery]

http://www.batterylaptoppower.com/compaq/pp2110.htm compaq pp2110 battery ,

[Aaron]

im sure any one who's come off a bike, or fallen has experienced the time slow thing, obviously as stated by previous comments its just your thoughts and reflexes speeding up. ive never been in a situation were adreneline's been able to help me prevent injury from a bike crash ect, but the ability to be able to feel every nano second of the crash is incredible, feels like your flying. once after nearly breaking my arm, i felt time slow down, it slowed in retrospect to the pain setting in, so had time to react and treat the injury. ive also had the same feeling when in fights, a few seconds into a fight when andreneline kicks in and you hit "the zone" every thing seems to slow down, and like reboot said, your actions can be instinctive, or you draw from previous memories, ones you may not even know you had.