Early intervention in psychiatry
March 1, 2023
Lachlan Kent, Barnaby Nelson, Georg Northoff
35 citations
Distortions in how time is experienced, perceived, and processed appear across many psychiatric disorders, including depression, mania, anxiety, autism, impulse-control, dissociative, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders. A proposed Transdiagnostic Taxonomy of (disordered) Time (TTT) maps these temporal disturbances onto a 2 × 2 × 2 state space that combines psychological models of temporal processing with phenomenological models of subjective time experience. The taxonomy differentiates diagnoses primarily involving distorted macro-level phenomenal temporal experiences (anxiety, dissociation/PTSD, depression, mania) from those involving distorted micro-level temporal processing (psychotic, impulse-control, autistic, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders). Temporal distortions may precede functional decline, suggesting potential for early detection and intervention in at-risk groups.
Consciousness and cognition
August 1, 2019
Lachlan Kent, George Van Doorn, Britt Klein
11 citations
A hierarchical framework for consciousness is proposed that parallels factorial models of cognition and intelligence. Using temporal extension as a dimension—similar to how psychology organizes memory into short-term, long-term, and long-lasting—the analysis fits memory and time consciousness along the same logarithmic scale for timescales under 100 seconds. Different forms of time consciousness, such as experience, wakefulness, and self-consciousness, are embedded within ascending timescales of memory modes. A second dimension integrates higher-order consciousness and emotion with memory and cognition, aligning with existing theories of cognitive and emotional intelligence.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2021
Lachlan Kent, M. Wittmann
Many dominant theories of consciousness focus on brief, static, and discrete functional moments of time, neglecting the extended, dynamic, and continuous nature of conscious experience. Experience flows through a succession of moments, from future predictions to present experiences to past memories. This confusion between short and discrete versus long and continuous time is a core issue in consciousness research. Studying time consciousness could test novel predictions of rival theories, and different theories may be compatible if different aspects of time are considered. The crucial step is to make subjective time a central object of study.