No abstract

Disturbances in the experience of time have been a commonly reported feature of depressive disorders since the beginning of modern psychiatry and psychological research. However, qualitative research approaches to investigate the phenomenon are rarely used. We employed content analysis to investigate disturbances of time experience in Major Depressive Disorder. Our analysis from 25 participants showed that individuals with Major Depressive Disorder subjectively seem to have lost the ability to influence or change the present, resulting in an impersonal and blocked future. The present is rendered meaningless, the past unchangeably negative, and the passage of time turned into a dragging, inexorable, and viscous continuance. The overall,—possibly intersubjective—concept of time experience, remains largely intact, causing or adding to depressive mood and suffering. We elaborate on how these findings reflect previous theories on the experience of time in depression. This study might encourage future inquiries into both the phenomenal and neuroscientific foundation of time experience under psychopathological conditions.

Although the experience of time is of central relevance for psychopathology, qualitative approaches to study the inner experience of time have been largely neglected in autism research. We present results from qualitative data acquired from 26 adults with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Employing inductive content analysis we identified a distinct pattern of interrupted time experience in ASD. Individuals with ASD seemed to implement structured and routine behavior by future planning to guarantee that the present passed uninterrupted. We reason that the success of corresponding compensatory mechanisms determines the development of distress and noticeable symptoms. Considering recent theories on Bayesian perceptual inference we relate the syndrome of interrupted time experience to the putative neuronal mechanisms underlying time experience.

Zusammenfassung. Obwohl Personen mit hochfunktionalem Autismus häufig gute bis sehr gute Bildungsabschlüsse erreichen und sich für einen Beruf qualifizieren, sind sie häufig von Arbeitslosigkeit bedroht. In einer offenen Befragung wurden 102 spätdiagnostizierte erwachsene Patienten hinsichtlich ihres schulischen und beruflichen Werdeganges, ihrer berufsbezogenen Erfahrungen sowie Wünsche befragt. Davon beantworteten 29 Personen die offenen Fragen vollständig. Die Freitextanworten wurden mithilfe der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse systematisch ausgewertet. Die Analyse der schulischen und beruflichen Werdegänge ergab, dass die befragten Personen überwiegend gut ausgebildet sind, aber 45 % zum Befragungszeitpunkt arbeitslos waren. Die Analyse der Erfahrungen ergab, dass Problembereiche vor allem mit den beschriebenen Kernsymptomen von Autismus-Spektrum-Störungen (ASS) und neuropsychologischen Auffälligkeiten assoziiert sind. Weitere Faktoren wie ein Mangel an Unterstützung und Akzeptanz durch das berufliche Umfeld sowie ungeeignete Unterstützungsmaßnahmen durch Institutionen können den Leidensdruck der Betroffenen weiter verstärken. Geäußerte Wünsche ergaben einen konkreten Unterstützungsbedarf an autismusspezifischen Angeboten. Im Rahmen eines Modellprojekts wird darauf aufbauend ein Maßnahmenkatalog zur beruflichen Integration von Menschen mit ASS entwickelt.

Emotional facial expressions provide important nonverbal cues in human interactions. The perception of emotions is not only influenced by a person’s ethnic background but also depends on whether a person is engaged with the emotion-encoder. Although these factors are known to affect emotion perception, their impact has only been studied in isolation before. The aim of the present study was to investigate their combined influence. Thus, in order to study the influence of engagement on emotion perception between persons from different ethnicities, we compared participants from China and Germany. Asian-looking and European-looking virtual agents expressed anger and happiness while gazing at the participant or at another person. Participants had to assess the perceived valence of the emotional expressions. Results indicate that indeed two factors that are known to have a considerable influence on emotion perception interacted in their combined influence: We found that the perceived intensity of an emotion expressed by ethnic in-group members was in most cases independent of gaze direction, whereas gaze direction had an influence on the emotion perception of ethnic out-group members. Additionally, participants from the ethnic out-group tended to perceive emotions as more pronounced than participants from the ethnic in-group when they were directly gazed at. These findings suggest that gaze direction has a differential influence on ethnic in-group and ethnic out-group dynamics during emotion perception.