Interrupted Time Experience in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Empirical Evidence from Content Analysis

Abstract

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.

Reduced nonverbal interpersonal synchrony in autism spectrum disorder independent of partner diagnosis: a motion energy study

“…ASD has also been associated with atypical time processing. Interviews have shown that individuals with ASD tend to rely on routines and repetitive behaviours to help the structuring of their subjective time experience [98,99]. Moreover, empirical findings found that individuals with ASD tend to perceive time atypically ranging from impaired interval timing to intact or increased temporal event structure coding and that this correlates with nonverbal communication difficulty (e.g.…”

Machine Learning to Study Social Interaction Difficulties in ASD

“…Yet, the assessment is not straightforward or standardized so far and is hampered by the fact that non-verbal behavior is not necessarily reduced in ASD, but abnormal in the quality of its temporal coordination with own verbal output (de Marchena and Eigsti, 2010) and that of an interaction partner. Literature provides evidence for aberrations in temporal processing (Allman and Falter, 2015) and time experience in ASD (Vogel et al, 2019), potentially affecting nonverbal communication. In fact, findings have shown that ASD can be characterized by increased temporal resolution associated with the severity of (non-verbal) communication impairments in ASD (Falter et al, 2012(Falter et al, , 2013Menassa et al, 2018; but see Isaksson et al, 2018).…”

The Temporality of Situated Cognition

“…For patients with schizophrenia, disturbances in temporal processing have repeatedly been implicated ( Fuchs, 2007 ; Vogeley and Kupke, 2007 ; Fletcher and Frith, 2009 ; Vogel D. et al, 2019 ). It has been proposed that a disruption or fragmentation in temporal continuity may lie at the heart of explaining psychotic symptoms.…”

“…From a phenomenological point of view, it has primarily been argued that this fragmentation is due to an alteration of the future directed protention on the microlayer of time ( Kupke, 2009 , pp. 53–62; Fuchs, 2013 ; Stanghellini et al, 2016 ; Vogel D. H. V. et al, 2019 ; Vogel D. et al, 2019 ). In this context, protention is understood as analogous to an anticipatory process ( Fuchs, 2013 ), which graduates future perceptions along a spectrum of probability.…”

“…In both exemplary cases, these alterations in temporal experience have been described as hypothetically linked to changes in predictive processing (e.g., Kent et al, 2019 ; Vogel D. et al, 2019 ; Vogel D. H. V. et al, 2019 ; Vogel et al, 2020 ) just as temporality and predictive processing more generally have been ( Grush, 2006 ; Hohwy et al, 2016 ; Wiese, 2017 ). Although these two approaches may not coincide in all respects [e.g., the debate between (neo-)neo-Kantian representationalism and Husserlian transcendental idealism ( Zahavi, 2018 ), or see Grush, 2006 for an overview of difficulties and weaknesses of some integrative approaches mentioned or referred to herein], they converge on the intrinsic unfolding of temporality on what we have now called the microlayer of time.…”