The Study of Time Perception in Migraineurs

• Published in: Headache Vol. 52; no. 10; pp. 1483 - 1498
• Main Authors: Zhang, Juanjuan, Wang, Guoying, Jiang, Yubao, Dong, Wenwen, Tian, Yanghua, Wang, Kai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.11.2012; Wiley-Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Alice in Wonderland Syndrome - diagnosis; Alice in Wonderland Syndrome - physiopathology; Alice in Wonderland Syndrome - psychology; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; basal ganglia; Biological and medical sciences; cerebellum; cognition; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Female; Headache; Humans; Interstimulus interval; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Migraine; Migraine Disorders - diagnosis; Migraine Disorders - physiopathology; Migraine Disorders - psychology; Motor ability; motor timing; Neurology; Pain; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reproduction; Temporal perception; time perception; Time Perception - physiology; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system; Visual stimuli; Young Adult; Cerebellum; Headache; Nervous system diseases; basal ganglia; Migraine; Cardiovascular disease; Cognition; Basal ganglion; Cerebral disorder; motor timing; Vascular disease; Pain; Central nervous system disease; Perception; Neurological disorder; time perception; Cerebrovascular disease; migraine; cognition; cerebellum
• ISSN: 0017-8748; 1526-4610; 1526-4610
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2012.02222.x

Objective.— The study aimed to explore the impairment of time perception in migraineurs. Background.— Headache is the most common pain syndrome in middle‐aged adults, and migraine is highly prevalent and severely disabling. Although the mechanisms of and the therapies for migraines have long been explored, less is known about the functional impairments associated with them, especially the impairment in time perception, that is, the ability to estimate the passage of time. Methods.— In this study, we used a temporal reproduction task to assess the estimation of the duration of visual stimulus in 27 migraine patients. The stimulus was delivered at different intervals over the milliseconds and seconds range. Results.— In the setting of an interstimulus interval for 1 second and an interstimulus interval for 5 seconds in the 600‐millisecond‐duration reproduction task, the migraineurs showed impairment in time perception, and in that they significantly overestimated the duration, as compared with the healthy subjects. When compared with the healthy controls for the 3‐second and 5‐second duration reproduction task, migraineurs in the setting of an interstimulus interval for 1 second and an interstimulus interval for 5 seconds did not show impairment in time perception. Conclusions.— This study indicates that not only is time perception impaired in migraineurs, but that this impairment is exhibited for durations in the milliseconds range, and not the seconds range.