Temporal processing dysfunction in schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia may be associated with a fundamental disturbance in the temporal coordination of information processing in the brain, leading to classic symptoms of schizophrenia such as thought disorder and disorganized and contextually inappropriate behavior. Despite the growing interest and centrality of time-dependent conceptualizations of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, there remains a paucity of research directly examining overt timing performance in the disorder. Accordingly, the present study investigated timing in schizophrenia using a well-established task of time perception. Twenty-three individuals with schizophrenia and 22 non-psychiatric control participants completed a temporal bisection task, which required participants to make temporal judgments about auditory and visually presented durations ranging from 300 to 600 ms. Both schizophrenia and control groups displayed greater visual compared to auditory timing variability, with no difference between groups in the visual modality. However, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited less temporal precision than controls in the perception of auditory durations. These findings correlated with parameter estimates obtained from a quantitative model of time estimation, and provide evidence of a fundamental deficit in temporal auditory precision in schizophrenia.

Altered time-perception performance in individuals with high schizotypy levels

“…In fact, those with schizophrenia show time-perception effects consistent with the above view [18][19][20][21][22][23] . In tasks that require behavior to be modulated by concurrent judgments of the passage of time, participants with schizophrenia over-estimate the passage of time 19,[21][22][23] .…”

“…If high scorers perform in a similar manner to individuals with schizophrenia 18,20 , then they should emitted greater number of S responses for longer presentations than low scorers (i.e., high scorers would judge 50% of the stimuli as 'short' at a longer objective time period than low scorers).…”

“…Such studies have found that schizophrenic patients are, indeed, less accurate in their timing judgments than controls, and are also more variable in these judgments 18,20 . However, other studies using this procedure that report results divergent to these above reports, some finding no difference in the estimation of the passage of time in schizophrenic outpatients, but an increased variability in their time judgments 14 .…”

“…However, other studies using this procedure that report results divergent to these above reports, some finding no difference in the estimation of the passage of time in schizophrenic outpatients, but an increased variability in their time judgments 14 . One factor implicated in interpreting such discrepancies 14,18,20 , and the increased variability of temporal perception 14 , is the role of anti-psychotic medication.…”

“…Thus, timing was not an explicitly studied behavior on those tasks, and any potential deficits in this process are only inferred from patterns of responding, rather than being measured directly. Given these considerations, the use of temporal-bisection tasks 41 , previously employed for schizophrenic patients 14,18 , could forward understanding in this area.. Given the previous results noted above for schizophrenic patients 18,20,22,25 , and those reported on schedules of reinforcement for high-schizotypals 34,37 , the expectation was that, if timing differences exist between low and high schizotypy scorers (who are free of the impact of medication), these would manifest in differences in the observed bisection point of these two groups.…”