[Maddieman]

... or does it?

Have you ever experienced a shifting perception of time? For example during an accident or fall?

Well, here's quite an interesting story on NPR about a neuroscientist who's been researching the slow-motion (or bullet-time) effect sometimes perceived by people in moments of crisis or terror.

Quote:

Several years ago, motivated in part by his childhood plunge, David started studying the way our sense of time distorts in crisis situations. He has gathered a huge number of stories from people who have survived falls, car crashes, bike accidents, etc. Everyone, he says, seems to say the same thing: "It felt like the world was moving in slow motion."

But what is really going on? David started to think that maybe, in a crisis, the brain goes into a sort of turbo mode, processing everything at higher-than-normal-speed. If the brain were to speed up, he thought, the world would appear to slow down. This would work just like a slow-motion movie; in a slow-mo shot of a hummingbird, for example, you can see each individual wing movement in what would otherwise be just a blur.

It then talks about an experiment he set up to try and replicate and measure the effect, to figure out if/how our perception of time changes. Worth a look if you're curious about this sort of thing.

Full story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=129112147

[pctech]

I do think this happens yes.

[Harry Lime]

Yeah. Prior to a car crash a few years ago.

[Lunapocalypse]

Nope. When it happens it happens fast.

[MestV]

I have had a gun in my face before, time didn't slow...

Once got hit by a motorcycle at 175km/h, I really do believe my "airtime" was much shorter then it seemed to be.

[djshauny1]

yes it sure does

[Demite]

I think maybe there are two voices in each persons head in these situations: the one that says 'jesus that felt like forever', and 'but it was only 3 seconds'. It must be that each voice must be louder to certain people.