Depression does not affect time perception and time-to-contact estimation

Abstract

Depressed patients frequently report a subjective slowing of the passage of time. However, experimental demonstrations of altered time perception in depressed patients are not conclusive. We added a timed action task (time-to-contact estimation, TTC) and compared this indirect time perception task to the more direct classical methods of verbal time estimation, time production, and time reproduction. In the TTC estimation task, the deviations of the estimates from the veridical values (relative errors) revealed no differences between depressed patients (N= 22) and healthy controls (N= 22). Neither did the relative errors of the TTC estimates differ between groups. There was a weak trend toward higher variability of the estimates in depressed patients but only at the shortest TTC and at the fastest velocities. Time experience (subjective flow of time) as well as time perception in terms of interval timing (verbal estimation, time production, time reproduction) performed on the same subjects likewise failed to produce effects of depression. We conclude that the notion that depression has a sizeable effect on time perception cannot be maintained.

Abnormal Time Experiences in Major Depression: An Empirical Qualitative Study

“…Empirical research provided inconsistent or contradictory findings, displaying both overestimation [93,94] and underestimation [95] of time intervals as well as normal performance [86] in patients with depression. Also, employing time production/reproduction tasks, contradictory findings have been provided [88,[91][92][93][94][95] .…”

“…Time perception is linked to a neural cognitive device, regarded as the "inner clock" [84] , whose activity is sensitive to physiological variables (i.e., age or dopaminergic tone) or pathological ones (e.g., schizophrenia) [85] . On the contrary, time experience is considered the "direct phenomenal impression of time perception," that is the subjective experience of time flowing [86] . Time experience has been investigated via the Visual Analogue Scale (a graduated line spanning from extremely slow to extremely quick polarities) [87,88] and via the verbal statements produced by the patients [89] .…”

“…Time experience has been investigated via the Visual Analogue Scale (a graduated line spanning from extremely slow to extremely quick polarities) [87,88] and via the verbal statements produced by the patients [89] . In the course of depression, patients frequently report slowness of time sense [86][87][88][89][90][91][92] , as well an inclination to overvalue toward past events rather than the future [92] .…”

“…Some of these discrepancies have been attributed to (a) the experimental design of time perception tasks, where the time intervals used as stimuli range from milliseconds to minutes (differences between normal controls and depressed patients may be evident only in longer intervals of time) [83] ; (b) different mechanisms that may underpin time perception (e.g., neurocognitive abilities) compared to time experience (mood disturbance and PMR) [87,88] ; (c) the ineffectiveness of laboratory paradigms to capture real-world time experience, where the slowness of subjective time manifests itself [86] .…”

Temporal preparation and short-term temporal memory in depression

“…An explicit judgment about duration is the outcome of experimental tasks requiring comparison of time intervals, production or reproduction of a standard duration or verbal estimation (Msetfi et al, 2012;Droit-Volet, 2013;Davalos et al 2018). This approach has led to conflicting results and the precise influence of depression on time perception remains elusive (see review in Oberfeld et al, 2014;Thönes and Oberfeld, 2015). However, temporal cognition is not limited to explicit temporal judgements.…”