The Mode of Action and Cognitive Neural Mechanisms in Emotional Modulation of Interval Timing

Humans' perception of time has been observed to be distorted by emotions. Subjective distortion of time is typically modulated through experienced emotions and anticipated emotions. In this review, we distinguished the effects of experienced emotions and anticipated emotions on timing from the perspective of the ways that emotions take effect and cognitive mechanisms. According to the scalar expectancy theory, we proposed a new cognitive model to explain how emotions modulate the time perception in different time processing stages. Finally, we summarized the evidence of neurophysiology basis and brain mechanisms about emotional modulation of interval timing. Future researches are advised to further investigate and extend our understanding on the roles of anticipated emotions in driving emotion-induced temporal distortions, to find out the interactions of attention, arousal and valence, and to explore the neuropsychological mechanisms of emotional temporal distortions.