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Brief Communication

Nature Neuroscience 11, 541–542 (1 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/nn.2111

Reduction of stimulus visibility compresses apparent time intervals

Masahiko Terao , Junji Watanabe , Akihiro Yagi & Shin'ya Nishida

The neural mechanisms underlying visual estimation of subsecond durations remain unknown, but perisaccadic underestimation of interflash intervals may provide a clue as to the nature of these mechanisms. Here we found that simply reducing the flash visibility, particularly the visibility of transient signals, induced similar time underestimation by human observers.