The brain and the subjective experience of time. A voxel based symptom-lesion mapping study.
Luigi Trojano, Michelina Caccavale, Francesco De Bellis, Claudio Crisci
Behavioural Brain Research April 21, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.031 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case-control lesion mapping study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 61 |
| Population | 33 patients with focal brain damage (19 right-hemisphere, 14 left-hemisphere) and 28 non-neurological controls |
| Measures | QUEstionnaire for the Subjective experience of Time (QUEST) |
| Keywords | Humans Brain ischemia Intracranial hemorrhages Tomography, x-ray computed Brain mapping Retrospective studies Prospective studies Time perception Psychomotor performance Neuropsychological tests Middle aged Female Functional laterality Emotional states Ecological tests Time cognition Distributed network Subjective time experience Vlsm analysis |
| Key findings | Patients with focal brain damage differed significantly from non-neurological controls on subjective time judgements, with no difference between right- and left-hemisphere lesion groups. Voxel-based lesion mapping associated prospective time errors with the right inferior parietal lobule, and lesion subtraction suggested partly distinct anatomical patterns for prospective and retrospective time errors. |
Abstract
The aim of the study was to identify the anatomical bases involved in the subjective experience of time, by means of a voxel based symptom-lesion mapping (VLSM) study on patients with focal brain damage. Thirty-three patients (nineteen with right-hemisphere lesions -RBD, and fourteen with left lesion- LBD) and twenty-eight non-neurological controls (NNC) underwent the semi-structured QUEstionnaire for the Subjective experience of Time (QUEST) requiring retrospective and prospective judgements on self-relevant time intervals. All participants also completed tests to assess general cognitive functioning and two questionnaires to evaluate their emotional state. Both groups of brain-damaged patients achieved significantly different scores from NNC on the time performance, without differences between RBD and LBD. VLSM showed a cluster of voxels located in the right inferior parietal lobule significantly related to errors in the prospective items. The lesion subtraction analysis revealed two different patterns possibly associated with errors in the prospective items (the right inferior parietal cortex, rolandic operculum and posterior middle temporal gyrus) and in the retrospective items (superior middle temporal gyrus, white matter posterior to the insula).