There is an impairment in time perception of patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Objective

The objective of this study is to examine time perception impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Method

The study was performed with 60 MS patients and 60 age-matched healthy people. Estimation and Production Tests were carried out with a standard personal laptop computer and participants were aware to count the seconds by the ‘start’ command and to stop by the ‘stop’ command. The outcome measure was the ratio between the estimated duration and the target (7 s, 32 s, or 58 s) one for the Estimation Test and the Produced duration and the target (7 s, 32 s, or 58 s) one for the Production Test; and each time duration was repeated three times both for Production and Estimation Tests.

Results

We found a significant difference in the Estimation Test (7 s, 32 s, 58 s), and the Production Test (7 s, 32 s, 58 s) between the MS group and healthy control group (p < .05). It was observed that patients with MS had a higher deviation from the target time compared to the control group. It was found that this difference was statistically significant (p < .05). There was a high and negative correlation between the Estimation and Production Tests in MS patients.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our data suggests that time estimation and production are disturbed in MS patients, and cognitive rehabilitation is required for most of them.

Keywords:

• Time production
• time estimation
• multiple sclerosis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank to Sevgi Baytak and Ufuk Aksay for their contributions to this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. There is no conflict of interest between the authors.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from Hatay Mustafa Kemal Universty Ethical Council and informed consent were obtained from the patients.