Modelling the compression of perceived time by a cerebral system with nervous excitability deficit and near the perception threshold

A macroscopic model of the nervous tissue is used to explain temporal aspects of perception in human cases with deficitary nervous excitation due to loss of neural cortical mass. In these cases, the cerebral system is less excitable, has a lower reaction time and a slower decay of excitation than in a normal case. The model considers the macroscopic nervous excitation response in the brain, involved in the integrative process, and contains essential ingredients such as permeability to the excitation of the network implicated and its reaction time. Non-local temporal aspects subjected to causality are taken in account. This simple model accounts for the observed shortening of the perceived duration of a stimulus, the perceived reduction of the lapse of time between two events, and the lower discrimination between repeated stimuli, when the network of the cerebral system has a deficit in nervous excitability and the intensity of the stimulus is close to the perception threshold. Temporal summation is involved in these effects. Stimuli can be visual, tactile or auditive, though we restrict the references and data to the visual system.