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. 2019 Oct 30;5(10):eaax6916.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax6916. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Time perception deficits and its dose-dependent effect in methamphetamine dependents with short-term abstinence

Mingming Zhang  1 , Di Zhao  2 , Zhao Zhang  1 , Xinyu Cao  3 , Lu Yin  4 , Yi Liu  5 , Ti-Fei Yuan  2   6   7 , Wenbo Luo  1
Affiliations

Time perception deficits and its dose-dependent effect in methamphetamine dependents with short-term abstinence

Mingming Zhang et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

Intake of addictive substances acutely modifies dopaminergic transmission in the striatum and prefrontal cortex, which is the neural substrate underlying time processing. However, the persistent effects of methamphetamine (meth) abuse (e.g., during abstinence) on temporal processing have not been fully elucidated. Here, we recruited different samples in two experiments. We first compared the potential differences in motor timing between healthy controls and meth dependents with varied length of abstinence and then examined the ability of perceptual timing between the healthy subjects and the meth group at short abstinence. We found that motor timing, but not perceptual timing, was altered in meth dependents, which persisted for at least 3 months of abstinence. Dose-dependent effects on time perception were only observed when short-term abstinent meth abusers processed long time intervals. We conclude that time perception alteration in meth dependents is task specific and dose dependent.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Temporal reproduction task and findings of experiment 1.
(A) All participants needed to complete a temporal reproduction task where the duration of the gray oval (1 to 5 s) in the encoding phase should be remembered in people’s mind. Then, when the duration of the gray oval displayed in the reproduction phase matched the encoding one, participants were asked to press the space bar. ISI, interstimulus interval; ITI, intertrial interval. (B) For the meth-long group and HCs, the duration reproduction ratio (DRR) was higher than 1 at durations of 1 and 2 s, lower than 1 at durations of 4 and 5 s, but not different from 1 at duration of 3 s. For the meth-short group, the indifferent time point dropped at 2 s. The dotted line indicates accurate reproduction. ns, not significant, #P = 0.051, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Error bars represent SEM. (C) HCs showed a higher coefficient of variation (CV) than the two meth groups across all target durations. Error bars represent SEM. (D to H) When the target duration was longer than 1 s, there was a significant negative correlation between the DRR and dosage of meth use before abstinence in the meth-short group. This pattern did not exhibit in the meth-long group. *P < 0.05. (I to M) When the target duration was longer than 2 s, there was a significant positive correlation between the CV and dosage of meth use before abstinence in the meth-short group. This pattern did not exhibit in the meth-long group. *P < 0.05.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Temporal discrimination task (subsecond) and findings of experiment 2a.
(A) In the task, a gray oval with the standard duration (500 ms) appeared first, and then a comparison duration (200, 350, 500, 650, or 800 ms) was shown. Participants indicated whether the comparison was longer or shorter than the standard when an exclamation mark was displayed. (B) Mean proportion of “long” responses in each comparison duration was fitted a logistic function for HCs (gray) and the meth-short group (purple), respectively. The dotted line represents 50% of “long” responses. (C) Both HCs (gray) and the meth-short group (purple) did not overestimate or underestimate the subsecond duration. The group difference was not significant. The dotted line represents the standard duration (500 ms). (D) There was no significant group difference in the slope of the curve. (E) The relationship between the dosage of meth use before abstinence and PSE was not significant (r = −0.026, P = 0.881). (F) The relationship between the dosage of meth use before abstinence and slope was not significant (r = −0.125, P = 0.475).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Temporal discrimination task (suprasecond) and findings of experiment 2b.
(A) In the task, a gray oval with the standard duration (2000 ms) appeared first, and then a comparison duration (1400, 1700, 2000, 2300, or 2600 ms) was shown. Participants indicated whether the comparison was longer or shorter than the standard when an exclamation mark was displayed. (B) Mean proportion of “long” responses in each comparison duration was fitted a logistic function for HCs (gray) and the meth-short group (purple), respectively. The dotted line represents 50% of “long” responses. (C) Both HCs (gray) and the meth-short group (purple) overestimated the suprasecond duration, but the group difference was not significant. The dotted line represents the standard duration (2000 ms). ***P < 0.001. (D) There was no significant group difference for the slope of the curve. (E) The negative relationship between the dosage of meth use before abstinence and PSE was significant (r = −0.507, P = 0.004). (F) The relationship between the dosage of meth use before abstinence and slope was not significant (r = 0.221, P = 0.241).
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