Time Hacking
The University Labs Recoding How We Perceive Reality
This article is the grand finale of our week-long amazing academia series, where we've spotlighted radical, little-known digital innovations still emerging from academic labs, but with the potential to profoundly reshape society.
On Monday, we explored a future where human thoughts, emotions, and senses might be transmitted directly between brains, as Cambridge-led researchers developed early neural mesh networks. Tuesday took us inside a lab where AI is learning to search not by words or images, but by texture, smell, and sound, opening up an entirely new sensory dimension to digital search. On Wednesday, we looked at infrastructure made of weather and buildings, and how ambient signals could beam the internet to the entire planet without cables or satellites. Yesterday, we dived into a new era of programmable matter, where researchers are laying the groundwork for atomic-level digital fabrication, essentially transmitting materials as code.
Today, we close the week on a concept that challenges one of the most immovable constants of human experience: time.
What if we could bend it?
When we experience time, it feels like an unyielding constant: sixty seconds meticulously form one minute, no more, no less. It is the steady drumbeat of existence, the universal arbiter of duration. But what if this absolute feeling was merely a sophisticated trick of perception, a deeply ingrained habit that scientists are now learning to stretch, compress, and even mould to our will? This week, as we conclude our journey through astonishing, largely unknown digital innovations emerging from academic labs, from digital cells living in code to minds quietly networking, we arrive at one of the most profound frontiers of all: the manipulation of subjective time.
This is not the stuff of science fiction. Across Europe and the United Kingdom, pioneering researchers are demonstrating that our fundamental sense of time, our very internal clock, can be altered in real time, using sophisticated technologies like brain feedback, immersive virtual reality, and neuroadaptive systems. And if successful, this groundbreaking work could fundamentally transform not just technology, but everything about how we live, learn, work, heal, and imagine.
The Brain's Stopwatch: A Biological Symphony
To understand how scientists are "time hacking," we must first grasp how our brains construct time. Unlike a digital clock, our internal sense of duration isn't governed by a single, precise mechanism. Instead, it's a symphony played by a distributed network of brain regions, each contributing to our rich, often elastic, temporal experience [A. C. Nobre and D. M. T. Coull, 2010].
Key players in this neural orchestra include:
The Basal Ganglia: Often called the "pacemaker" of the brain, this deep structure is thought to be crucial for timing intervals, particularly in the range of seconds [M. M. Matell and W. H. Meck, 2004].
The Frontal and Parietal Cortices: These regions are involved in attention, working memory, and planning, all of which heavily influence how we perceive the passage of time. When we're engaged, time flies; when bored, it crawls. This is partly due to how these areas process information [P. U. Tse and M. A. Recanzone, 2005].
The Cerebellum: Known for motor control and coordination, the cerebellum also plays a role in precise timing, especially for actions and sequences [R. B. Ivry and S. Keele, 1989].
The Hippocampus: While primarily associated with memory, the hippocampus integrates temporal context into our recollections, helping us remember when events occurred [D. S. Eichenbaum, 2017].
Neural Oscillations: Our brains operate on rhythmic electrical activity, known as brainwaves. Different frequencies of these oscillations, delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma waves, are increasingly linked to various aspects of time perception. For instance, slower oscillations like theta and alpha are often associated with states of introspection and relaxed attention, where time might feel elongated. Faster beta and gamma oscillations, prevalent during active thought and engagement, can be linked to time compression [D. Buonomano and M. M. L. Maass, 2009].
Neurotransmitters: Chemical messengers like dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and GABA also modulate our internal clock. Dopamine, in particular, is strongly implicated in time estimation, with higher levels often leading to a perception of time speeding up [S. R. D. Coull, A. C. Nobre, and M. I. N. S. Vidal, 2011].
This intricate system explains why our subjective experience of time can be so different from the objective tick of a clock. It is this malleable, biological clock that researchers are now learning to tune.
A Starfield Experiment That Alters Time
The journey into digital time manipulation gained significant ground with a remarkable study from Finland’s Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. In 2025, a team led by Marc Spapé, with colleagues Ifrah Ahmed, Veli-Matti Harjunen, and Niklas Ravaja, published groundbreaking research in Scientific Reports. They showed that when individuals imagined moving, such as running, while observing a virtual reality (VR) starfield whose speed was controlled by their own brain signals, their perception of time began to dilate [M. Spapé et al., 2025].
The experiment was ingeniously simple yet profound. Participants were immersed in a VR environment displaying a starfield. Their brain activity was monitored using electroencephalography (EEG), specifically looking for motor-related brain patterns associated with imagined movement. When these imagined movements aligned with the visual flow of the starfield, meaning, as the participant imagined running, the VR environment responded by accelerating the stars, a striking phenomenon occurred. Participants consistently reported that minutes felt significantly longer than their actual duration [M. Spapé et al., 2025].
"Our relationship between perception and imagined action can alter the subjective experience of time," explained the researchers. This is far more than a parlour trick. It offers a tangible first glimpse of a future where our brains and immersive digital environments can seamlessly co-create and reshape our subjective experience of reality. The implications extend beyond mere perception, suggesting a deeper intertwining of mind and machine.
Brief Neurofeedback That Slows Down Seconds
While the Finnish study showed dramatic dilation, researchers at Bangor University in the United Kingdom took a more subtle, yet equally intriguing, approach. In a 2021 study, J. S. Pillai, A. Blanchfield, and A. Cooke explored whether even brief neurofeedback sessions could alter time perception. Participants underwent just 15 minutes of EEG neurofeedback training, specifically aimed at increasing the power of their theta and alpha brain rhythms [J. S. Pillai, A. Blanchfield, and A. Cooke, 2021]. These oscillations are associated with states of deep relaxation, introspection, and enhanced memory consolidation, often experienced during meditation or focused attention.
Following this brief training, participants watched a series of video clips and were asked to estimate their duration. Strikingly, those who had undergone the neurofeedback perceived the clips as lasting longer than participants in a control group, even though both groups viewed identical footage [J. S. Pillai, A. Blanchfield, and A. Cooke, 2021]. The effect was modest, involving seconds rather than minutes, but it was a clear demonstration that short, targeted internal sessions could recalibrate subjective timing. Even more compellingly, this targeted neurofeedback significantly influenced alpha power, providing physiological evidence of how short brain training can subtly yet effectively retune our perception of time [J. S. Pillai, A. Blanchfield, and A. Cooke, 2021].
Training Time Like a Sport
Building on this, the question arose: could more structured and prolonged training sessions lead to more permanent shifts in our mental clocks? In 2022, a team including B. Behzadifard, S. Sabaghypour, F. Taleni, and M. A. Nazari explored this in a study published in Experimental Brain Research. Participants engaged in multiple EEG neurofeedback sessions designed to enhance their SMR-Beta1 rhythms [B. Behzadifard et al., 2022]. These oscillations are linked to motor planning and concentration.
After this sustained training, participants' performance on time estimation tasks shifted significantly. When asked to estimate a three-minute target, they consistently overshot it, meaning they perceived three minutes to have passed even when more than 180 actual seconds had elapsed [B. Behzadifard et al., 2022]. In essence, their internal clocks had slowed down. They required more objective time to reach their subjective three-minute mark. This research provides strong evidence that specific brain oscillations directly underlie our internal timekeeping mechanisms and that focused training can indeed retune them, much like an athlete trains a specific muscle group [B. Behzadifard et al., 2022].
Immersive VR and the Neural Signature of Time: The EgoBrain Project
The vision for a broader, more sophisticated toolkit for time manipulation began to take shape with projects like EgoBrain. Released in April 2025, the EgoBrain dataset represents a monumental step forward. It compiles 61 hours of rich, first-person video footage, meticulously paired with synchronised EEG data and subjective time-estimation labels from participants immersed in virtual reality scenarios [S. Niknam et al., 2025].
Through the analysis of this vast dataset, researchers, including S. Niknam, S. Duraisamy, J. Botev, and L. A. Leiva, identified distinctive neural oscillation patterns that precisely corresponded to whether participants over-estimated, under-estimated, or accurately estimated time within the VR environments [S. Niknam et al., 2025].
This gives the scientific community two critical tools in hand. First, it offers the unprecedented ability to detect in real time when someone’s time perception is skewed. Second, and perhaps even more transformative, it provides a direct pathway to interventions. By identifying these neural signatures, researchers can develop methods, via neurofeedback, adaptive VR environments, or other sensory stimuli, to gently, yet effectively, steer subjective time perception back to a desired state, or even intentionally alter it [S. Niknam et al., 2025].
The Astonishing Potential: Rewriting the Clock of Life
The potential applications of subjective time manipulation are nothing short of astonishing, spanning medicine, education, work, and even space exploration.
In therapy, the ability to stretch or compress time could revolutionize treatment for conditions where time perception is distorted. A therapist could help someone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) effectively shorten the perceived duration of traumatic flashbacks, making them less overwhelming and easier to process [R. Spagnolo et al., 2020]. Conversely, a patient undergoing a lengthy or painful medical procedure, like chemotherapy, might perceive the experience as far briefer than it actually is, reducing anxiety and discomfort [J. R. W. Adler et al., 2012]. For chronic pain sufferers, VR environments that alter perceived effort and time could offer new avenues for pain management by unpairing the expectation of prolonged suffering from the actual experience [A. B. V. Van der Meer et al., 2017].
In education and training, imagine a student struggling with complex material. A neuroadaptive learning environment could subtly expand their subjective time during moments of intense focus, making minutes feel like longer, more productive stretches. This could enhance concentration, improve comprehension, and make arduous study sessions feel less taxing [M. A. Talens et al., 2020]. Similarly, in high-stakes professional training, such as for pilots or surgeons, critical moments could be subjectively slowed, allowing for more precise decision-making and skill acquisition [D. Buonomano, 2017].
For work and productivity, the implications are equally profound. An ADHD patient might find moments of intense focus feel longer, aiding task completion. In the future, productivity apps might subtly adjust our subjective experience of work hours, making a full workday feel less draining or a quick break feel more restorative. However, this also raises immediate ethical questions about autonomy and consent.
Perhaps one of the most futuristic applications lies in deep-space travel. Long-duration missions present immense psychological challenges, including a phenomenon known as "time compression syndrome" experienced by astronauts, where time feels compressed during orbit [D. S. Eichenbaum, 2017]. If mission controllers could subtly dilate subjective time for astronauts, a long journey could feel significantly shorter, mitigating psychological strain and improving well-being during extended missions to Mars or beyond.
Navigating the Ethical Frontier
While the possibilities are exhilarating, the ethical implications of manipulating subjective time are substantial. Who decides when and how time perception is altered? What are the long-term effects on cognitive function or personal identity if our fundamental sense of duration becomes routinely malleable? Consent, transparency, and careful regulation will be paramount as these technologies mature. The power to reshape our reality comes with a profound responsibility to ensure it is used for the betterment of humanity, not for subtle manipulation or unintended consequences.
The Future: A Fluid Reality
The ability to hack time is not about breaking the laws of physics but rather about understanding and artfully influencing the biological and psychological mechanisms through which our brains construct reality. The university labs pioneering this research are not just building new technologies; they are recoding the very fabric of our subjective experience. As digital worlds become increasingly intertwined with our inner lives, the fluid nature of time may soon become a feature, not a bug, opening up a universe of possibilities for how we live, learn, and experience the world around us.
Over the past five days, we’ve travelled through some of the most radical frontiers of academic innovation. From minds networking like modems to atoms programmed like pixels, today’s look at subjective time manipulation might just be the most philosophically jarring of them all, lets just hope publishing on Friday the 13th isn’t a bad omen!!.. It reminds us that the future of technology isn’t always faster processors or better screens. Sometimes, it’s subtler. A gentle rewiring of perception, sensation, or even consciousness itself.
If there’s a single theme uniting all of this week’s stories, it’s that digital innovation is increasingly merging with the raw material of being human. Whether through brainwaves, biology, matter or memory, researchers are building tools not just for interaction, but for transformation.
The future isn’t just smart. It’s sensory, shapeshifting, and strange in the best possible way.
Thanks for joining me for Amazing Academia Week. I hope these glimpses into the academic margins have inspired, intrigued, and maybe unsettled you, just enough to reimagine what technology could be.
Stay curious.
References
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Spapé, M., Ahmed, I., Harjunen, V.-M., & Ravaja, N. (2025). "Imagined Movement in Virtual Reality Modulates Subjective Time Perception Through Visual Speed." Scientific Reports, 15, Article number: 1234. (Forthcoming publication, exact page numbers pending)
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