I'm performing an experiment at school:  I have a person count 30
seconds in their head.  Then I have the person count 30 second again,
only this time while gargling Listerine.  I'd appreciate any research
relating to this topic: Namely, which side of our brain keeps track of
time, and how do certain conditions (whether pain, pleasure, stress,
etc...) affect our awareness of time?  Thanks.

Hello kantspel-ga [I like the name],

Interesting topic!  If you judge by a recent Listerine commercial,
gargling for 30 seconds is a difficult (but worthwhile) activity,
mentally and physically.  So I suppose that it would be a good test
for whether a combination of physical activity, physical stimulus, and
concentration do affect the awareness of time.

The answer the first part of your question -- which side of the brain
keeps track of time -- is complicated.

It seems that the conventional wisdom has been that the left side (or
hemisphere) of the brain is responsible for timekeeping.

"More on Dyslexia" [under heading "Individual differences"]
University of East London: Dyslexia Service
http://www.uel.ac.uk/students/student_support/disability/Whatisdyslexia2.html

"Learning Styles: Justine Lamantia's I-Search Page" [under heading
"Personal Interview", question "Is there any other vital information I
should consider when researching this topic?"]
SUNY Oneonta: Learning Support Services
http://www.oneonta.edu/academics/lss/justine.htm

However, I did not see indications of research to support this view. 
Rather, it appears that several areas of the brain might be
responsible for aspects of timekeeping.  The basil ganglia, the
cerebellum, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) (a pair of structures,
one in the left side of the brain, one in the right), and a few areas
of the cerebrum (most notably the right parietal cortex or lobe) have
all been proposed as areas that relate to timekeeping.  The basil
ganglia appear to be a leading candidate for an area that relates to
timing on the scale of seconds (as opposed to fractions of a second or
to longer periods).  However, the issue seems far from resolved, and
it is possible that a few areas relate to keeping track of seconds.

"Neural Underpinnings of Temporal Processing: A Review of Focal
Lesion, Pharmacological, and Functional Imaging Research", by Deborah
L. Harrington 1 and Kathleen Y. Haaland (Reviews in the Neurosciences,
10, 91-116 (1999)) [discussing the basil ganglia, the cerebellum, and
cortical structures]
Centre de Calcul Recherche et Résseau Jussieu: Relais d'Information
sur les Sciences de la Cognition
http://web.ccr.jussieu.fr/~risc/revneurfn.pdf

"Neural Mechanisms of Timing", by Eliot Hazeltine, Laura L. Helmuth,
and Richard B. Ivry (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1: 163-169 (1997))
[discussing the basil ganglia, the cerebellum, and cortical
structures]
CogPrints
http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000012/00/ivry.html

"How Do We Tell Time?", by Dean V. Buonomano and Uma R. Karmarkar
(Neuroscientist 8(1):42-51, 2002) [at page 46, discussing the
cerebellum, the basil ganglia, and the right parietal cortex]
UCLA: The Department of Neurobiology
http://www.neurobio.ucla.edu/~dbuono/BuonoNeuroscient02L.pdf

"Locating the Timekeeping Centers of the Brain" (2001-02-26)
[discussing the basil ganglia and the right parietal lobe]
Medical College of Wisconsin: HealthLink
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/983222164.html

"Mind Over Time", by Mark Caldwell (July 1999) [discussing the SCN]
Discover Magazine 
http://www.discover.com/july_99/featmind.html

As to the second part of your question, I have found a good academic
article that discusses this issue.  (Other relevant articles mentioned
in the above-cited sources do not appear to be available on the Web.)

"The influence of affective factors on time perception", by Alessandro
Angrilli et al. (Perception & Psychophysics 1997 59 (6), 972-982)
CogPrints
http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000803/00/timeperc.pdf

The article is mainly devoted to an experiment involving the effects
of emotional stimuli on time perception.  However, on pages 972-973,
the article discusses prior research on factors that affect time
perception.  These factors include physical activity, threat of shock,
fear, and other negative stimuli, which in general have been reported
to cause an overestimation of the amount of time.

It is worth noting that the experiment on emotional stimuli found, as
reported in the summary on page 972: "For low arousal stimuli, the
duration of negative slides was judged relatively shorter than the
duration of positive slides.  For high arousal stimuli, the duration
of negative slides was judged longer than the duration of positive
slides."  And as stated on page 976, "In all conditions tested, time
was underestimated."  You might want to skim the article to take note
of the complexities of how time perception might be affected in
certain situations.

- justaskscott-ga


I used various combinations of the following search terms on Google:

"track of time"
timekeeping
"keeping time"
"keep time"
psychological
experiment
attention
"left side"
"right side"
"left hemisphere"
"right hemisphere"
brain
"time perception"
angrilli

I came across something that you might find interesting:
Richard Feynman did some experiments with this--asking people to count
in their heads while running up and down stairs versus staying still,
etc.
It's in either "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" or "What Do You
Care What Other People Think?".  Both by him/based on his memoirs.
(I'm pretty sure it's in the first book.)

kcha-ga is correct. It's in the book "'What Do You Care What Other
People Think?' Further Adventures of a Curious Character."

It also appears as the chapter entitled "It's as Simple as One, Two,
Three," in the posthumous volume "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out:
The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman" (2000). This chapter is
online, at http://209.73.202.83/trevornet/faculty_administration/feynman.htm

-ravuri-ga