time distortion

   Also known as illusory alteration of time, psychopathology of time judgment, paradoxic time sense, temporal anomaly, and dyschronation. All six terms are generic terms for a group of symptoms characterized by an altered experience of psychological time. In this context, psychological time is defined as the subjective estimation or experience of time. It is generally held that psychological time is constructed by the brain (and/or mind, in a dualist reading) on the basis of endogenous and exogenous stimuli, especially those which have a rhythmic character. Under physiological circumstances, psychological time may expand under the influence of boring events, and contract under the influence of interesting events. Although the notion of 'estimation' in the definition of psychological time would seem to hint at a cognitive phenomenon, time distortions tend to be conceptualized as perceptual phenomena. They may occur during altered states of consciousness (drug-induced or induced by physical exhaustion or stress), and in the context of "psychotic disorder, "aurae, and the "Alice in Wonderland syndrome. When the experience of time is either speeded up or slowed down, the term "tachypsychia applies. A variant of tachypsychia in which time is experienced as going too fast is called the "quick-motion phenomenon. The opposite condition, in which time appears to pass extremely slowly, is called " protracted duration. Time distortions may be accompanied by an altered sense of past and future, and by a subjective sensation of a 'slowing down' of one's bodily motions (i.e. a " slow-motion hallucination).

   References

   Critchley, M. (1953). The parietal lobes. London: Edward Arnold & Co.

   Flaherty, M.G. (1999). A watched pot: How we experience time.New York,NY: NewYork University Press.

   Häfner, H. (1953). Psychopathologie der cere-bralorganisch bedingten Zeitsinnesstörungen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Zeitschrift Neurologie, 190, 530-545.

   Hoff, H., Pötzl, O. (1934). Über eine Zeitrafferwirkung bei homonymer linksseitiger Hemi-anopsie. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 151, 599-641.

   Lhamon, W.T., Goldstone, S., Goldfarb, J.L. (1965). The psychopathology of time judgment. In: Psychopathology ofperception.Editedby Hoch, P.H., Zubin, J. New York, NY: Grune & Stratton.