title: Modulation of human time processing by subthalamic deep brain stimulation.
abstract: Timing in the range of seconds referred to as interval timing is crucial for cognitive operations and conscious time processing. According to recent models of interval timing basal ganglia (BG) oscillatory loops are involved in time interval recognition. Parkinsońs disease (PD) is a typical disease of the basal ganglia that shows distortions in interval timing. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a powerful treatment of PD which modulates motor and cognitive functions depending on stimulation frequency by affecting subcortical-cortical oscillatory loops. Thus, for the understanding of BG-involvement in interval timing it is of interest whether STN-DBS can modulate timing in a frequency dependent manner by interference with oscillatory time recognition processes. We examined production and reproduction of 5 and 15 second intervals and millisecond timing in a double blind, randomised, within-subject repeated-measures design of 12 PD-patients applying no, 10-Hz- and ≥ 130-Hz-STN-DBS compared to healthy controls. We found under(re-)production of the 15-second interval and a significant enhancement of this under(re-)production by 10-Hz-stimulation compared to no stimulation, ≥ 130-Hz-STN-DBS and controls. Milliseconds timing was not affected. We provide first evidence for a frequency-specific modulatory effect of STN-DBS on interval timing. Our results corroborate the involvement of BG in general and of the STN in particular in the cognitive representation of time intervals in the range of multiple seconds.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany. wojtecki@uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wojtecki
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elben
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Timmermann
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reck
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maarouf
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jörgens
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ploner
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Südmeyer
authors.forename: Stefan Jun
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Groiss
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sturm
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niedeggen
authors.forename: Alfons
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schnitzler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology; D003071:Cognition; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000379:methods; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020531:Subthalamic Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D013995:Time; D013997:Time Factors