Time perception dysfunction in psychometric schizotypy

Time perception dysfunction has been demonstrated in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate whether judgements about brief durations of time ( 2 s) were disturbed in non-clinical high-schizotypal individuals. A total of 101 non-clinical university students completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ: Raine, 1991) and a temporal bisection task. In the latter, subjects were required to categorise a probe duration as short or long, based upon the similarity with two referents. All participants completed two temporal bisection conditions, a 400/800 ms condition and a 1000/2000 ms condition. Temporal bisection performance was compared in individuals with total SPQ score below and above one standard deviation from the mean. In addition, the whole sample was used to examine the correlation between bisection performance and schizotypal dimensions (cognitive/perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganisation). Compared to low SPQ scorers, high SPQ scorers judged durations significantly shorter in the 1000/2000 ms condition. Within schizotypy dimensions, both cognitive/perceptual and interpersonal dimensions were significantly associated with the shorter duration judgement. These findings provide evidence for time perception dysfunction among people with schizotypal traits and, therefore, for a continuum between subjects within the general population and clinically defined cases of schizophrenia.