The dissociation of temporal processing behavior in concussion patients: Stable motor and dynamic perceptual timing

Dysfunctional Timing in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: Co-occurrence of Cognitive, Motor, and Perceptual Deficits

“…Future studies need to further explore these aspects in larger and more homogeneous participant groups. Still, these results are particularly important for at least two reasons: first, motor timing has been typically considered as spared in TBI ( Bader et al, 2019 ). For example, Perbal et al (2003) found no motor deficit–but higher variability–in production or reproduction tasks in severe TBI (see also Pouthas and Perbal, 2004 ); similarly, Bader et al (2019) found no evidence of motor timing deficits in mild TBI patients in a paced tapping task.…”

“…Neurocognitive timing refers to the capacity to encode, decode, and process events in time and to temporally align with the environment ( Grondin, 2010 ; Grondin et al, 2018 ). Although humans are sensitive to the timing of events across multiple timescales, the ability to process time in the milliseconds-to-seconds range is particularly relevant for perception, action, and cognition ( Piras et al, 2014 ; Bader et al, 2019 ). Adequate timing abilities in this range constitute a precondition for everyday activities such as walking, holding a conversation, cooking, and for virtually any kind of goal-directed behavior.…”

“…TBI is categorized as mild, moderate, or severe based on acute injury characteristics (e.g., loss of consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia, brain damage). Next to neurodegenerative and developmental diseases, timing can also be compromised by TBI ( Pouthas and Perbal, 2004 ; Mioni et al, 2013a ; Piras et al, 2014 ; Bader et al, 2019 ); for example, some patients report difficulties in putting events in correct chronological order (e.g., while cooking). Across all levels of severity, timing impairments and cognitive symptoms–including extreme fatigue, impaired attention, working memory, and processing speed ( Wallesch et al, 2001 ; Hoskison et al, 2009 ; Witt et al, 2010 ; Ghajar and Ivry, 2015 )–are persistent and significantly hampered in daily life ( Schretlen and Shapiro, 2003 ; Langlois et al, 2006 ; Barwood and Murdoch, 2013 ).…”

“…Across all levels of severity, timing impairments and cognitive symptoms–including extreme fatigue, impaired attention, working memory, and processing speed ( Wallesch et al, 2001 ; Hoskison et al, 2009 ; Witt et al, 2010 ; Ghajar and Ivry, 2015 )–are persistent and significantly hampered in daily life ( Schretlen and Shapiro, 2003 ; Langlois et al, 2006 ; Barwood and Murdoch, 2013 ). As these symptoms tend to co-occur, it is challenging to disentangle their relative importance and causal relation ( Piras et al, 2014 ; Bader et al, 2019 ). On the one hand, timing deficits may underlie and explain the seemingly varied cognitive symptoms observed in TBI (e.g., Ghajar and Ivry, 2008 ); on the other, several empirical studies suggest that cognitive deficits may be the cause of more elusive timing impairments ( Perbal et al, 2003 ; Mioni et al, 2012 , 2013b , 2014 ).…”

“…On the one hand, timing deficits may underlie and explain the seemingly varied cognitive symptoms observed in TBI (e.g., Ghajar and Ivry, 2008 ); on the other, several empirical studies suggest that cognitive deficits may be the cause of more elusive timing impairments ( Perbal et al, 2003 ; Mioni et al, 2012 , 2013b , 2014 ). The fact that cognitive impairments may be responsible for timing deficits is based on higher variability, but not necessarily lower performance accuracy, in TBI patients than healthy controls in perceptual tasks (e.g., Anderson and Schmitter-Edgecombe, 2011 ; Piras et al, 2014 ; for a review see Mioni et al, 2014 ); in addition, motor timing appears to be largely unaffected ( Bader et al, 2019 ). Taken together, this evidence seems to downsize the relevance of timing in TBI.…”