A Neuropsychological Test Battery for the Assessment of Time Deficits

Time processing involves different abilities - i.e. estimating the duration of an event and moving in past and future time - and it is a fundamental ability in everyday life. For these reasons the assessment and the rehabilitation of time deficits in brain damaged patients is extremely important.

The ability to estimate and reproduce time processing is usually evaluated using computerized tasks and it is influenced by aging: young participants overestimate and elderly participants underestimate time durations.

Virtual Reality is an ecological approach that has recently been used for the assessment of cognitive deficits. Here we use Virtual Reality to study the ability to estimate time duration of an action execution and perception in a simulated everyday activity.

Time processing involves different abilities - i.e. estimating the duration of an event and moving in past and future time - and it is a fundamental ability in everyday life. However, in neuropsychology, time processing is routinely neglected in the assessment of cognitive deficits in brain-damaged patients. The discrepancy between the importance of time processing and the lack of instruments for the diagnosis of time deficits in brain damaged patients can be mainly due to the fact that time difficulties fail to emerge in a hospital context where daily activities are routinely scheduled by careers. Thus, time deficits become critical only when patients return home and, for younger patients, when they go back to working activities. For these reasons the assessment and the rehabilitation of time deficits in brain damaged patients is extremely important.

Interestingly, recent evidence has begun to demonstrate that our perceptions and sensations are influenced by motor movements and actions. Further, there is also evidence suggesting that movement not only biases perceived time, but can enhance it, suggesting the motor system directly influences temporal perception.

The ability to estimate and reproduce time in actions is usually evaluated using computerized tasks and it is influenced by aging: young participants overestimate and elderly participants underestimate time durations.

Virtual Reality is an ecological approach that has recently been used for the assessment of cognitive deficits. Here we use Virtual Reality to study the ability to estimate time duration of an action execution and perception in a simulated everyday activity.

The primary aim of the project is to measure the impact of time deficits and its effects on everyday life: a neuropsychological battery assessing time processing (Time Estimation, Time Reproduction, Mental Time Travel) is tested using both computerized and virtual reality tasks.

Moreover, the project aims also to investigate i) the correlation between Time Reproduction in a computerized task and the ability to reproduce the duration of an executed action in Virtual Reality; ii) the correlation between Time Estimation in a computerized task and the ability to estimate the duration of an executed action in Virtual Reality.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* patients with focal right and left brain-damage

Exclusion Criteria:

* generalized cognitive impairment (score lower than 24 at the Mini Mental State Examination)
* psychiatric disorders
* additional neurological disorders
* abusive use of alcohol or illicit drugs