Aarthi Venkatesh, SIAS Cohort of 2023-27 has co-authored a new research preprint titled Competitive Neural Dynamics of Flicker-Induced Time Dilation with Dr Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS. The research is from the Computational Cognition Lab, Psychology. The manuscript is currently under review at IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (IEEE TCDS).
The study investigates why time seems to slow down when we look at rapidly changing or flickering visuals. In this study, the researchers have combined behavioural experiments conducted in the Psychology Laboratory at Krea University with computational neural network modelling. They found that higher visual flicker frequencies (40 Hz vs. 20 Hz) cause a strong, non-linear expansion of perceived duration without reducing temporal sensitivity. Using an On-Center Off-Surround (OCOS) recurrent neural network model, they show that subjective time dilation naturally emerges from competitive winner-take-all dynamics between neural populations rather than an isolated internal clock.
