The Effects of Aging and Brain Damage on Time Perception

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
CUREJ - College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
aging
brain damage
time perception
timing
power functions
temporal
parietal
psychophysics
estimation
production
magnitude
clock
Biological Basis of Behavior
Natural Sciences
Anjan Chatterjee
Chatterjee
Anjan
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract

The effects of aging and brain damage on time perception are not well understood. In this study, we test the hypothesis that aging affects timing variability and that parietal damage affects timing magnitude. Young and healthy college-age students, older subjects, and a patient with bilateral parietal damage were assessed on their ability to estimate and produce time intervals ranging from four to fifteen seconds. Subjects completed two tasks: production of the duration of a stimulus in seconds and estimation of when the number of seconds presented as a stimulus had elapsed. Data was analyzed via power functions: ψ = Kφβ. Aging and brain damage should theoretically result in either reduced exponents or increased variability in performance. Information processing models separate deficits in perception, decision-making, and memory, allowing more specific analysis of the locus of cognitive deficits. The results of this study show no effects of aging on time perception whereas parietal damage affects temporal processing in significant ways.

Advisor
Anjan
Chatterjee
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2007-05-04
Journal title
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection