Ever notice the second hand on a clock momentarily slow down? Researchers recently recreated the effect in a lab. Tom Stafford explains how it works:
The theory is that our brains attempt to build a seamless story about the world from the ongoing input of our senses. Rapid eye movements create a break in information, which needs to be covered up. Always keen to hide its tracks, the brain fills in this gap with whatever comes after the break. Normally this subterfuge is undetectable, but if you happen to move your eyes to something that is moving with precise regularity – like a clock – you will spot this pause in the form of an extra long “second”. …
Like with everything else, what we experience is our brain's best guess about the world.
The Dish 