ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal abilities of children treated by surgery for a malignant tumor in the cerebellum, both in the perception and the production of rhythm. Children with a diagnosed medulloblastoma and age-matched control children were tested in a rhythm discrimination task and a sensorimotor synchronization task. Their motor and cognitive capabilities were also assessed through a battery of age-adapted neuropsychological tests. The results did not show any significant difference in performance between groups for the discrimination task. On the contrary, children with cerebellar lesions produced longer and more variable inter-tap intervals (ITI) in their spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) than did the control children. However, the length and, to a lesser extent, the variability of their SMT decreased after a synchronization phase, when they had been instructed to tap in synchrony with a beep. During the synchronization task, the children with medulloblastoma succeeded to modify the length of their ITI in response to an auditory rhythm, although with better success when the inter-stimuli intervals (ISI) were shorter than when they were longer than the ITIs of their own SMT. Correlational analyses revealed that children's poorer synchronization performance was related to lower scores in neuropsychological tests assessing motor dexterity and processing speed.
Subject(s)
Auditory Perceptual Disorders/physiopathology , Cerebellar Neoplasms/therapy , Medulloblastoma/therapy , Time Perception/physiology , Adolescent , Auditory Perception/physiology , Cerebellar Neoplasms/physiopathology , Child , Child, Preschool , Discrimination, Psychological/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Medulloblastoma/physiopathology , Psychomotor PerformanceABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to examine whether age-related changes in the speed of information processing are the best predictors of the increase in sensitivity to time throughout childhood. Children aged 5 and 8 years old, as well adults, were given two temporal bisection tasks, one with short (0.5/1-s) and the other with longer (4/8-s) anchor durations. In addition, the participants' scores on different neuropsychological tests assessing both information processing speed and other dimensions of cognitive control (short-term memory, working memory, selective attention) were calculated. The results showed that the best predictor of individual variances in sensitivity to time was information processing speed, although working memory also accounted for some of the individual differences in time sensitivity, albeit to a lesser extent. In sum, the faster the information processing speed of the participants, the higher their sensitivity to time was. These results are discussed in the light of the idea that the development of temporal capacities has its roots in the maturation of the dynamic functioning of the brain.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Brain/physiology , Cognition/physiology , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Neuropsychological Tests , Time Perception/physiology , Adult , Age Factors , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Regression Analysis , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to investigate temporal abilities in children treated by surgery for a malignant tumor in the cerebellum. Children with a diagnosed medulloblastoma and age-paired control children were given a temporal discrimination task (bisection task) and a temporal reproduction task with two duration ranges, one shorter than 1s and the other longer than 4s. The motor and cognitive capacities of these children were also assessed by a battery of age-adapted neuropsychological tests. The results did not show any significant difference in performance between the children with or without cerebellar lesions in the temporal discrimination task. It was only in the temporal reproduction task that the children with cerebellar lesions reproduced longer and more variable durations than the other children, but only for the short stimulus durations (≤ 1 s). In addition, a hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the best predictor of variance in temporal performance was a significantly lower processing speed in children with cerebellar lesions in comparison to their controls. These results indicated that the major cause of deficits in temporal judgments in children with cerebellar lesions was due to their inability to reproduce accurately short temporal intervals in association with low processing speed, rather than to a specific deficit in the perception of time.
Subject(s)
Cerebellar Neoplasms/rehabilitation , Cerebellar Neoplasms/surgery , Medulloblastoma/rehabilitation , Medulloblastoma/surgery , Postoperative Complications/physiopathology , Time Perception/physiology , Adolescent , Attention/physiology , Cerebellar Neoplasms/therapy , Chemoradiotherapy , Child , Child, Preschool , Discrimination, Psychological/physiology , Female , Humans , Judgment/physiology , Male , Medulloblastoma/therapy , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Movement/physiology , Neuropsychological Tests , Postoperative Complications/diagnosis , Predictive Value of TestsABSTRACT
Adults and children (5- and 8-year-olds) performed a temporal bisection task with either auditory or visual signals and either a short (0.5-1.0s) or long (4.0-8.0s) duration range. Their working memory and attentional capacities were assessed by a series of neuropsychological tests administered in both the auditory and visual modalities. Results showed an age-related improvement in the ability to discriminate time regardless of the sensory modality and duration. However, this improvement was seen to occur more quickly for auditory signals than for visual signals and for short durations rather than for long durations. The younger children exhibited the poorest ability to discriminate time for long durations presented in the visual modality. Statistical analyses of the neuropsychological scores revealed that an increase in working memory and attentional capacities in the visuospatial modality was the best predictor of age-related changes in temporal bisection performance for both visual and auditory stimuli. In addition, the poorer time sensitivity for visual stimuli than for auditory stimuli, especially in the younger children, was explained by the fact that the temporal processing of visual stimuli requires more executive attention than that of auditory stimuli.
Subject(s)
Auditory Perception , Time Perception , Visual Perception , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Age Factors , Child , Child Development , Child, Preschool , Discrimination, Psychological , Humans , Memory, Short-Term , Neuropsychological Tests , Photic StimulationABSTRACT
The current study investigated how the development of cognitive abilities explains the age-related changes in temporal judgment over short and long duration ranges from 0.5 to 30s. Children (5- and 9-year-olds) as well as adults were given a temporal bisection task with four different duration ranges: a duration range shorter than 1s, two duration ranges longer than 3s (4-8s and >15s), and an intermediate duration range (1.25-2.5s). Their cognitive abilities were also assessed using a series of neuropsychological tests. The results showed that temporal sensitivity improved with age for each duration range but that this improvement occurred earlier for the short durations than for the long durations. Furthermore, the results revealed that the age-related improvement in time sensitivity for the durations shorter than 1s was explained by the development of short-term memory span, whereas that for long durations was explained by the development of attention/executive functions. To summarize, the development of the abilities required to process long durations seems to be explained mainly by the development of attentional resources.
