Abstract
Objective: Basic temporal dysfunctions have been described in patients with schizophrenia, which may impact their ability to connect and synchronize with the outer world. The present study was conducted with the aim to distinguish between interval timing and synchronization difficulties and more generally the spatial-temporal organization disturbances for voluntary actions. A new sensorimotor synchronization task was developed to test these abilities.Method: Twenty-four chronic schizophrenia patients matched with 27 controls performed a spatial-tapping task in which finger taps were to be produced in synchrony with a regular metronome to six visual targets presented around a virtual circle on a tactile screen. Isochronous (time intervals of 500 ms) and non-isochronous auditory sequences (alternated time intervals of 300/600 ms) were presented. The capacity to produce time intervals accurately versus the ability to synchronize own actions (tap) with external events (tone) were measured.Results: Patients with schizophrenia were able to produce the tapping patterns of both isochronous and non-isochronous auditory sequences as accurately as controls producing inter-response intervals close to the expected interval of 500 and 900 ms, respectively. However, the synchronization performances revealed significantly more positive asynchrony means (but similar variances) in the patient group than in the control group for both types of auditory sequences.Conclusion: The patterns of results suggest that patients with schizophrenia are able to perceive and produce both simple and complex sequences of time intervals but are impaired in the ability to synchronize their actions with external events. These findings suggest a specific deficit in predictive timing, which may be at the core of early symptoms previously described in schizophrenia.
Highlights
Many approaches, in phenomenology, neurobiology, and experimental psychology, have led to the idea that time disorders may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia
These findings suggest that patients have a fragility in the ability to predict the moment of appearance of a visual target, consistent with prior studies suggesting predictive timing impairments at the milliseconds level (Lalanne et al, 2012a,b)
The following analyses were conducted on mean contact duration (CD), with group and types of sequences as a between-group variable
Summary
In phenomenology, neurobiology, and experimental psychology, have led to the idea that time disorders may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Studies in experimental psychology have reported a difficulty in schizophrenia to discriminate between simultaneous and asynchronous information in visual perception, and to predict and expect information at the milliseconds (ms) and the second levels (Giersch et al, 2009; Lalanne et al, 2012a,b; Martin et al, 2017). All patients were impaired when expectancy was globally weakened by the addition of catch trials, i.e., trials in which targets were absent These findings suggest that patients have a fragility in the ability to predict the moment of appearance of a visual target, consistent with prior studies suggesting predictive timing impairments at the milliseconds level (Lalanne et al, 2012a,b)
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