Abstract
The experience of time, or the temporal order of external and internal events, is essential for humans. In psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, impairment of time processing has been discussed for a long time. In this explorative pilot study, therefore, the subjective time feeling as well as objective time perception were determined in patients with depression and schizophrenia, along with possible neurobiological correlates. Depressed (n=34; 32.4±9.8years; 21 men) and schizophrenic patients (n=31; 35.1±10.7years; 22 men) and healthy subjects (n=33; 32.8±14.3years; 16 men) were tested using time feeling questionnaires, time perception tasks and critical flicker-fusion frequency (CFF) and loudness dependence of auditory evoked potentials (LDAEP) to determine serotonergic neurotransmission. There were significant differences between the three groups regarding time feeling and also in time perception tasks (estimation of given time duration) and CFF (the "DOWN" condition). Regarding the LDAEP, patients with schizophrenia showed a significant negative correlation to time experience in terms of a pathologically increased serotonergic neurotransmission with disturbed time feeling. Impairment of time experience seems to play an important role in depression and schizophrenia, both subjectively and objectively, and novel neurobiological correlates have been uncovered. It is suggested, therefore, that alteration of experience of time should be increasingly included in the current psychopathological findings.
Highlights
Impairment of time experience seems to play an important role in depression and schizophrenia, both subjectively and objectively, and novel neurobiological correlates have been uncovered
No significant differences were found between the depressive and schizophrenic patients in the post hoc test for the dimension of time knowledge but a statistical tendency was found for time feeling (p = 0.08)
No other significant correlations were found. In this exploratory study of time experience and possible underlying neurobiological parameters in patients with schizophrenia and depression, significant changes in subjective time feeling were found in both depressed and schizophrenic patients compared to healthy controls
Summary
All internal and external events are organized in time for humans and are experienced and arranged by them as before/after or in the past, present or future. Changes in this time experience have been a recurring theme in the psychiatric literature [see 1]. It was repeatedly found that basal temporal processing, is only changed in organic brain illnesses and objective perception of time is changed more in patients with schizophrenia than in those with depression, whereas the subjective feeling of time is disturbed in many psychiatric illnesses [1]. The experience of time, or the temporal order of external and internal events, is essential for humans In psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, impairment of time processing has been discussed for a long time
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