Scientists have found that tilting the body at an angle of 30 degrees with the head down can change the perception of time, IZ writes with a link to the Psychology today material. This effect has previously been observed in astronauts who spend a long time in a state of microgravity. In particular, studies have shown that during space flights, people tend to exaggerate the duration of short time intervals. Scientists have suggested that these changes are associated with a violation of the perception of internal signals of the body, such as heartbeat and breathing.
A new study published in the journal Perception tested the effect of body position on the perception of time without having to send people into space. The participants were 16 students who performed time-reproduction tasks. They assessed the duration of the figures appearing on the screen before and after 30 minutes of being in a head-down position. Scientists recorded the accuracy, ratio and variability of the responses.
A diagram depicting a person lying in a head-down position. Photo: Nicolas Davidenko
The results showed that after being in a tilted position, the students made more errors in the task. They significantly exaggerated the duration of short periods of time compared to the results before the experiment. The researchers concluded that similar physiological changes can mimic the effects of microgravity observed in astronauts.
Such experiments open up new opportunities for studying the impact of space conditions on the body without the need to organize expensive space missions. This will allow us to analyze the relationship between physiology and time perception not only in space, but also in virtual environments or under other specific circumstances.
Recall that we previously wrote about how social networks affect our mood