Researchers from a university in Italy found that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease perceive time differently. The study’s findings were reported in a reputable scientific journal.
The study involved 13 participants with Alzheimer’s disease, 17 with subjective cognitive decline, 16 with mild cognitive impairment, and 17 healthy volunteers. All participants ranged in age from 55 to 86. In the experiment, each participant watched a sequence of short videos showing a red ball bouncing inside a transparent container and then jumping out after a pause.
During the task, participants viewed the video six times. On the seventh viewing, they were asked to press a button at the moment they believed the ball would exit the container. The ball consistently exited after a fixed time interval, while the number of rebounds against the container’s bottom before the exit varied.
Results showed that individuals with cognitive impairment and those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease struggled to complete the task. They made more mistakes than the control group when estimating the moment the ball would leave the cup, with those in the Alzheimer’s group performing the worst.
Researchers explained that these errors arise from impaired time perception and a reduced ability to reproduce chronological sequences in people with cognitive impairment. They linked these distortions to disruptions in the hippocampus caused by Alzheimer’s disease. The team hopes the findings will contribute to new diagnostic approaches that assess time perception as an early signal of cognitive decline.
Related questions consider how nutrition may influence brain structure, a topic that continues to attract scientific interest and public curiosity.