Lost in time and space? Multisensory processing of peripersonal space and time perception in Depersonalisation

Abstract

Perception of one’s self and body in time and space are fundamental aspects of self-consciousness. It scaffolds our subjective experience of being present, in the here and now, a vital condition for our survival and wellbeing. Depersonalisation (DP) is characterized by distressing feeling of being ‘spaced out’, detached from one’s self, body and the world, as well as atypical ‘flat’ time perception. Using a multisensory audio-tactile paradigm, we have conducted a study looking at the effect of DP experiences on peripersonal space (PPS) (i.e. the space close to the body) and time perception. Based on previous findings reporting altered PPS perception in schizophrenia patients and high schizotypal individuals, we hypothesized that people with higher occurrences of DP experiences would show similarly an altered PPS representation. Strikingly, we found no difference in PPS perception in people with high versus low occurrences of DP experiences. This suggests that anomalous PPS perception in DP and schizophrenic traits individuals may be underlined by different mechanisms. To assess time perception in relation to DP, we have used the Mental Time Travel (MTT) task measuring the individuals’ capacity to take one’s present as reference point for situating personal versus general events in the past and in the future. We found that people with higher occurrences of DP showed an overall poorer performance in locating events in time relative to their present reference point. By contrast, people with low occurrences of DP showed significant variation in performance when answering to relative past events. Consistent with phenomenological self-reports of ‘flatness’ of one’s temporal flow, people with higher occurrences of DP did not display this variation. Our study sheds further light on the close link between altered sense of self and egocentric spatiotemporal perception in Depersonalization, the third most common psychological symptom in the general population (after anxiety and low mood).

Disintegrated Self in Time: The Effect of Depersonalisation Experiences on Time Perspective

“…processing of external sensory inputs) and interoceptive (i.e. processing of internal sensory inputs) integration seems to be involved in bodily self-awareness (Craig, 2009;Tsakiris et al, 2011; see Park and Blanke, 2019 for a review), and a consistent body of literature pointing to the links between sensory disintegration and depersonalisation (Sel et al 2017, Heydrich et al 2018Adler et al 2016;Ferroni et al, 2023; see also Salami et al, 2020). A recent study by Arslanova et al (2023) observed cardiac fluctuations derived from emotionally charged visual stimuli, causing cardiacled time distortions.…”

“…For example, depression, rumination are usually associated with a past-oriented focus (Wang et al, 2021), while anxiety is related to problems with future time perspective (Kooij et al, 2018). Alterations in time perception investigated in terms of dissociative disorders also suggest deficits in temporal processing and perceptual abilities (Ferroni et al, 2023;Hart & Steele, 1997;Kent et al, 2022;Spiegel & Cardeña, 1991). Depersonalisation (DP) is a type of dissociative disorder that refers to the experience of feeling detached from one's self, body, and emotions (Sierra & Berrios, 1997).…”

Am I in Control? Explicit and Implicit Sense of Agency in Depersonalisation Experiences

“…Self, Space and Time" Questionnaire (SST) Additionally, all participants completed the "Self, Space and Time" Questionnaire (SST) composed of 14 items, scored on 5-point Likert scales (see Supplementary Material -I). The SST was developed by one of us (AC) to explore in depth the link between DP and altered spatiotemporal perception (Ferroni et al, 2023) in relation to the bodily self. T-test comparisons were conducted across HIGH DP and LOW DP participants, revealing signi cant differences across sample -apart for items 2, 3 and 4 (see Table D in Supplementary Material).…”

Self-portrait of a Stranger: Self-face Representation and Interoception in Depersonalization Experiences

“…The potential impairment in updating one's self-face image may also have fundamental links with subjective time perception, a process that appears to also be atypical in individuals with high DP who often report a lack of plot or narrative (Ciaunica et al, 2021) making them feel 'stuck in time' (Almeida et al in prep; Ciaunica et al in prep). For example, a recent study (Ferroni et al, 2023) used the Mental Time Travel task (MTT: Arzy, Molnar-Szakacs, & Blanke, 2008) to measure individuals' capacity of constructing one's own temporal perspective toward the past and the future by referring to personal experience. The authors found poorer performance in locating events in time relative to their present reference point in people with high DP.…”