system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a person's brain respond if they believe they are in a situation where death is inescapable, e.g., plummeting from a great height without a parachute?
gpt
Many survivors of such accidents testify time slowing down a lot. How fast time moves in the brain turns out is not a constant. It can burn more fuel more quickly and increase the resolution of time, in other words slow down time.

Why would the brain want to do this?

It is believed it has to do with the fight or flight response. In moments where split desicions are crucial for our survival the brain speeds up so we can think faster. When the thinking is sped up, that increases the resolution of time. You have more time each second to think about what to do.

It might be that in an accident where the person is convinced they are going to die, that the brain is stubborn and sees it not as the end but as an extra difficult challenge and slows down time _even more_.

It is better to burn all the fuel it can than to give up, it decides.

Some believe "life flashing before one's eyes" when falling might stem from this. Maybe the extreme resolution of time lets the person imagine big spans of their lives in great detail in what would be just a few seconds.