apolliana | Subjective Time Dilation

An illustration from Craig, B. (2009). "How do you feel--now? The anterior insula and human awareness." Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 10(1), 59-70. The caption reads: "When salient moments occur rapidly, the number of global emotional moments increase during that time and, as a consequence, subjective time dilates."

I have apparently stumbled upon the Next Big Thing in "Consciousness" Studies innocently looking for material on interoception (awareness of bodily sensations)--which, it seems, lives in the insula. The author of this paper makes a grand case for the role of the insula in "awareness" generally. Occasionally these neuroscience papers contain unexpectedly neat turns of phrase or illustrations--albeit with none of the supporting conceptual argument I expect as a philosopher: e.g. "music (viewed as a rhythmic temporal progression of emotionally laden moments)" (same paper: 62), or the anxiety theory term "looming vulnerability."

This particular image captures my favorite thing in life--moments when time stops. Or the way I, anyway, seem to dwell in those moments long after they've passed; indeed, to live there, to find them my home. Because, perhaps, there is (are?) more of me in them.