As an Asperger (?) or visual thinker, my attention to time is highly variable; when concentrating on a “visual” object or scene, time does not seem to exist. Time “markers” (these really are social in origin) such as calendars, schedules, appointments, fixed places and dates in time, are irritating interruptions to this highly pleasant lack of “feeling” for time. When these social “markers” are inevitable, as many are, I don’t feel well; anxiety may accompany the commitment to “be there” “show up” “put in an appearance.” This “regulation of time” by social entities feels alien.
My experience of the natural environment is fluid; determined by sensory “cues” – light, the motion of the atmosphere, color changes, sounds that merge and pass smoothly. The “human environment” is by contrast, incoherent; abrupt interruptions of sound, artificial light, space confined by walls and obstacles, jagged stop and go movement, no “time” to “enjoy” the senses. No peace.
In short, when in a natural environment I am within the ‘time sense’ of that environment; sensory embedded-ness, might be a description. In a human environment (except those few highly aesthetically conscious spaces), the sensory input is simply “all wrong”.
Asperger: The HypoSocial Human 