Time perception changes in stroke patients: A systematic literature review

Pedro Coelho; Joana Amado Rodrigues; Pedro Nascimento Alves; Ana Catarina Fonseca

doi:10.3389/fneur.2022.938367

Time perception changes in stroke patients: A systematic literature review

Front Neurol. 2022 Jul 19:13:938367. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.938367. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Pedro Coelho^{1

2}, Joana Amado Rodrigues³, Pedro Nascimento Alves^{1

2

4}, Ana Catarina Fonseca^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Serviço de Neurologia, Departamento de Neurociências e Saúde Mental, Hospital de Santa Maria, Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, Lisboa, Portugal.
² Centro de Estudos Egas Moniz, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
³ Clínica Universitária de Neurologia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁴ Laboratório de Estudos de Linguagem, Centro de Estudos Egas Moniz, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁵ Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

Abstract

Introduction: Time perception comprises the subjective experience of passing of time and of the duration of an event. Although already described in some neurological and psychiatric conditions, there is a paucity of details regarding this neurocognitive change in stroke patients. We aimed to describe time perception dysfunction in stroke patient.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of the literature in Pubmed, PsycInfo and EMBASE including manuscripts from their inception until December 2020. We collected data regarding the type of time perception that was detected, type of stroke, most common location of lesions, evaluation tests that were used and time of evaluation after stroke onset.

Results: A total of 27 manuscripts were selected, concerning a total of 418 patients (n = 253 male; 60.5%). Most manuscripts (n = 21) evaluated patients with ischaemic lesions (n = 407; 97.4%). The majority referred to evaluations between 2 months and seven years after stroke. Underestimation in temporal evaluation in sub- and supra-second was the most common dysfunction (n = 165; 41.7%). Overestimation of time (n = 116; 27.8%) and impaired time interval comparison (n = 88; 22.2%) were also found. Most patients had right hemisphere lesions (n = 219 patients; 52.4%). Common reported lesion locations included the thalamus, insula, basal ganglia, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex including supramarginal, angular gyrus and right inferior parietal cortex and cerebellum.

Conclusion: There are multiple stroke locations associated with time perception dysfunction, which highlights the complex system involved in time perception. There is still scarce knowledge about specific time perception deficits after stroke. Most studies rely in psychometric analysis without clear clinical and functional translation, namely regarding impact on daily activities.

Keywords: behavioral neuroscience; chronotaraxis; scalar expectancy theory; striatal beat frequency; stroke; time perception.

Publication types

Systematic Review