Tachypsychia – Lakshin Kumar

Tachypsychia is a neurological condition marked by an altered perception of time by an individual. The word tachypsychia comes from the Greek “tachos,” meaning swiftness and “psuche” meaning mind or soul translating loosely to “fast psyche.” Tachypsychia, though not recognized as a medical condition, is widespread among the population and occurs commonly during or after high stress events. Tachypsychia has been shown to not be rooted in a change in sensory ability but rather the perception of the stimuli themselves (Whitman). However, the reason behind the occurrence of tachypsychia is not clear as it is difficult to ethically place study participants in dangerous or stress-inducing environments. One theory is that that tachypsychia arises not as a present condition but as a filter over a memory of a stressful event. This idea stemmed largely from a study conducted by Stetson et al. in which participants were told to bungee jump and were shown to not exhibit increased resolution despite remembering their falls to be longer than they truly were. By contrast, some psychological researchers have posited that tachypsychia is marked by a true slowing of the perception of time in the present moment of perception with physiological side effects such as increased ability to create memories and perform tasks. Proponents of this theory point to studies which show increased ability to learn and perform simple tasks, such as Hagura et al. in which participants showed a significant increase in ability to react and move during stress-inducing conditions. However, it is largely agreed upon that a key aspect of tachypsychia is the presence of large levels of adrenaline as a response to the stress stimulus.

References:

Stetson C, Fiesta MP, Eagleman DM (2007) Does Time Really Slow Down during a Frightening Event? PLoS ONE 2(12): e1295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001295

Eagleman D. M. (2008). Human time perception and its illusions. Current opinion in neurobiology, 18(2), 131–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2008.06.002

Hagura, Nobuhiro, et al. “Ready Steady Slow: Action Preparation Slows the Subjective Passage of Time.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 279, no. 1746, Nov. 2012, p. 4399, doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1339.

Wittmann, Marc and Erik Butler. Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time. The MIT Press, 2016. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/46969.