Too Fast or Too Slow? Time and Neuronal Variability in Bipolar Disorder—A Combined Theoretical and Empirical Investigation
Schizophrenia Bulletin March 14, 2017 Georg Northoff, Paola Magioncalda, Matteo Martino et al. 95 citations
In bipolar disorder, the sense of time's speed is distorted: manic patients experience inner time as too fast and outer time as too slow, while depressed patients experience inner time as too slow and outer time as too fast. This desynchronization between self-time and world-time arises from opposite changes in neuronal variability—specifically, the standard deviation ratio between somatomotor and sensory brain networks. The authors' empirical data show abnormal SD balance in both manic and depressed bipolar patients, as well as in major depressive disorder. These findings suggest that individualized stimulation techniques like TMS or tDCS might normalize the neuronal variability patterns in these networks, potentially correcting the distorted time perception.