Human time perspective and its structural associations with voxel-based morphometry and gyrification

Abstract

Time perspective refers to humans’ concept of integrating and evaluating temporal position and evaluation of memories, emotions, and experiences. We tested the hypothesis that different aspects of time perspective, as assessed with the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) are related to variation of brain structure in non-clinical subjects. Analysing data from n = 177 psychiatrically healthy subjects using voxel-based morphometry with the CAT12 software package, we identified several significant (p < 0.05 FWE, cluster-level corrected) associations. The factors past negative, reflecting a negative attitude towards past events and present fatalistic, measuring a hopeless and fatalistic attitude towards future life, were both negatively associated with grey matter volumes of the anterior insula. The ZTPI factor future was negatively associated with precuneus grey matter. There was no association of ZTPI scores with gyrification using an absolute mean curvature method, a marker of early brain development. These findings provide a link between a general psychological construct of time perspective and brain structural variations in key areas related to time keeping (anterior insula) and the default mode network (precuneus), both of which overlap with variation in behavioral aspects and psychopathology.

Alexithymia Is Linked with a Negative Bias for Past and Current Events in Healthy Humans

“…From a neuroscientific perspective, our results are in accordance with findings that past negative and present fatalistic views in the temporal domain are both negatively associated with Grey Matter Volume (GMV) of the anterior insula [47], since alexithymia is also associated with reduced GMV in this region [48,49]. The suggestion that the negative time perspective bias of our borderline and manifest alexithymic participants may be linked with reduced insula GMV is also supported by evidence for the involvement of this region in time processing [50], and negative experiences such as aversion [51], disgust [52,53], and pain [54].…”

Ayurvedic protocols of chronic pain management: spatiotemporality as present moment awareness and embodied time

“…In humans, time perception encompasses the integrating and evaluating temporal facet of memories, emotions, and experiences. It has been examined through constructs such as present fatalism, morning-evening orientation (27), present-hedonism orientation, and subjective and objective passage of time to understand the interconnections between circadian typology, individual time perception, and passage of time (28). Interest in time perception has spanned identification of its neurobiological basis through a focus on brain structure variations (28) to understand its relationship with the flow of time (29), image of time (30), and neural bases for perception of time (31) to understanding its role in behavioral health through explicating its associations with self-regulation (32), anxiety, and depression (33), among other outcomes.…”

Estimating uncertainty in read‐out patterns: Application to controls‐based denoising and voxel‐based morphometry patterns in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases

“…in AD (Toniolo et al, 2018 ), SCZ (Torres et al, 2016 ), PD (Solana‐Lavalle & Rosas‐Romero, 2021 ), and AUT (Riddle et al, 2017 ). In healthy subjects, VBM reveals patterns associated with, for example, age, sex, and cognitive performance (Bourisly et al, 2015 ; Ramanoël et al, 2018 ; Schmitt et al, 2020 ).…”