Abstract
The adaptive significance of a putative time sense in humans remains
unclear as do the factors that underlie the capacity to gauge the
passage of time. Here we show that the subjective assessment of relatively
long durations varies systematically as a function of time of day.
Specifically, the subjective clock ran relatively faster when the
circadian oscillation of body temperature was on the rise and relatively
slower on the declining portion of the temperature curve. The overall
result was a rather labile clock that, on average, ran slow relative
to physical time. The results provide a glimpse into an underexplored
aspect of how humans use their endogenous clocks in the most fundamental
way — to gauge the passage of time.
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