Novella Fronda Foundation, Padua, Italy; Mental Health Centre, Department of Psychiatry -AULSS 6 Euganea, Padua, Italy.
Novella Fronda Foundation, Padua, Italy.
Behav Brain Res. 2024 Mar 5;460:114816. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114816. Epub 2023 Dec 18.
The dopaminergic (DA) system is an important neural system for the modulation of time perception and the timing of motor actions. Dysregulation of the DA system is related to chronic use of stimulant drugs, which lead, among others, to executive dysfunctions. Little is known instead about the potential deficiencies in temporal processing of stimulant-dependent individuals. The present study aimed to investigate temporal processing using a time bisection task with different temporal intervals in chronic cocaine users undergoing repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
Study 1: A time bisection task with short temporal intervals range (480/1920 ms) was administered to 18 cocaine use disorder (CocUD) patients and 20 healthy control before and after the intensive phase of rTMS treatment (5 days apart). Study 2: 22 CocUD participants and 23 control participants completed two temporal tasks (time bisection and time reproduction) with long temporal intervals range (1200/2640 ms) at baseline and immediately after the intensive phase of rTMS treatment.
Study 1: A shift in the psychometric function consistent with temporal overestimation in CocUD patients compared to controls was observed. However, no temporal impairment in CocUD patients at test session was found. Study 2: The analysis of temporal variability indices showed a significant difference between groups at baseline but not at Day 5 due to a significant difference between time points only in the CocUD group.
This study report a temporal overestimation in CocUD patients and a temporal variability reduction after an rTMS protocol in CocUD patients.
多巴胺能（DA）系统是调节时间感知和运动动作时间的重要神经系统。DA 系统的失调与慢性使用兴奋剂药物有关，这些药物会导致执行功能障碍等问题。相反，人们对依赖兴奋剂的个体在时间处理方面的潜在缺陷知之甚少。本研究旨在使用时间二分任务和不同的时间间隔，在接受重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）的慢性可卡因使用者中研究时间处理。
研究 1：18 名可卡因使用障碍（CocUD）患者和 20 名健康对照者在 rTMS 强化治疗前后（相隔 5 天）进行了短时间间隔范围（480/1920 毫秒）的时间二分任务。研究 2：22 名 CocUD 参与者和 23 名对照参与者在基线和 rTMS 强化治疗后立即进行了两个长时间间隔范围（1200/2640 毫秒）的时间二分任务和时间复制任务。
研究 1：与对照组相比，CocUD 患者的心理测量函数发生了一致的时间高估偏移，但在测试阶段未发现 CocUD 患者的时间损伤。研究 2：时间变异性指数的分析显示，在基线时组间存在显著差异，但在第 5 天由于 CocUD 组仅在时间点上存在显著差异而不存在差异。
本研究报告了 CocUD 患者的时间高估和 rTMS 方案后 CocUD 患者的时间变异性降低。
