Mioni Giovanna, Sanguin Naomi, Madeo Graziella, Cardullo Stefano
Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Novella Fronda Foundation, 35121 Padova, Italy.
Brain Sci. 2022 Jun 6;12(6):745. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12060745.
The involvement of the dopamine system in modulating time perception has been widely reported. Clinical conditions (e.g., Parkinson's disease, addictions) that alter dopaminergic signaling have been shown to affect motor timing and perceived duration. The present study aimed at investigating whether the effects of chronic stimulant use on temporal processing are time-interval dependent. All participants performed two different time bisection tasks (480/1920 ms and 1200/2640 ms) in which we analysed the proportion of long responses for each stimulus duration as well as an index of perceived duration and one of sensitivity. Regarding the proportion of long responses, we found no differences between groups in either time bisection task but patients had more variable results than controls did in both tasks. This study provides new insight into temporal processing in stimulant-dependent patients. Regardless of the time interval tested, the results showed comparable temporal ability in patients and controls, but higher temporal variability in patients. This finding is consistent with impairment of frontally-mediated cognitive functions involved in time perception rather than impairment in time processing per se.
多巴胺系统参与调节时间感知已被广泛报道。已表明改变多巴胺能信号传导的临床病症（如帕金森病、成瘾）会影响运动定时和感知持续时间。本研究旨在调查长期使用兴奋剂对时间处理的影响是否依赖于时间间隔。所有参与者都执行了两项不同的时间二等分任务（480/1920毫秒和1200/2640毫秒），我们分析了每个刺激持续时间的长反应比例以及感知持续时间指数和敏感性指数之一。关于长反应比例，我们发现在任何一项时间二等分任务中，两组之间均无差异，但在两项任务中，患者的结果比对照组更具变异性。这项研究为兴奋剂依赖患者的时间处理提供了新的见解。无论测试的时间间隔如何，结果都显示患者和对照组具有相当的时间能力，但患者的时间变异性更高。这一发现与参与时间感知的额叶介导认知功能受损一致，而非时间处理本身受损。
